House of Innocence
by Ruthrox
Summary: What happens when five juvenile delinquets are all stored in one house? Better yet, what happens when they all discover a murder? Who is to blame when they're secluded from society as can be?
1. Chapter 1

**Well here is my first story. Hope you like it! Please review!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own BTR...darn.**

~Sam's POV~

"Samantha L. Forrester, this court finds you guilty. You are to stay at a juvenile detention center for the next six months."

_Six months? Isn't that a little harsh for something so small?_

I looked over towards my parents. My mother had her head in her hands and wept while my father sat there with a stern disapproving look upon his face. He looked as though if he could kill the judge with impunity he'd do it, no doubt.

My lawyer motioned me to stand up. I walked out of the court room without another look at my parents. I was so ashamed I didn't think I could stand having them look at me like my father did at the judge.

My lawyer turned to me. "Samantha I'm really sorry. You have tonight to get your stuff together. I'll be at your house at noon tomorrow to bring you to the detention center."

I nodded slowly, staring at the floor.

/

"I know we raised her better than this!"

"You think she's _guilty_?"

"How could she be innocent?"

"She's your _daughter_!"

I sat in my bedroom listening to my parents fight. It really hurt to think that my own father believed me to be guilty. As far as I was concerned I didn't do anything wrong. Then again, I did have really crappy luck. Pretty much anything that could go wrong does go wrong. Awesome, right? It's what I blame all of this on.

So, before I go any further I'm guessing you're wondering who is this chick and why is she going to some freaky detention center full of delinquent girls who will probably beat her up the minute she gets there, right? Well, my name is Sammie, Sam, if you will. I'm 16 and the worst part is that my birthday is in three months so I get to celebrate it in juvie! Again, awesome, right? So a couple days ago I was busted for something that I didn't even realize I did. I would tell you exactly what I did but then that would make the story boring and then you'd think to yourself "Oh, okay then! I don't need to read the rest of this now! Good then…NEXT!" That would just make the rest of this pointless. Therefore I shall not tell you until later in the story! Mwahahahahaha…

Oh, great. Now you think I'm insane, right?

Well I'm not. I just have a very creative mind.

…I blame television.

Okay I'm making this unnecessarily strange so let us just go to the next day…

/

I watched a black car pull into our driveway. I felt my stomach twist in unfamiliar ways. That vehicle was nothing but creepy. It actually almost looked like a hearse. I picked up my two suitcases and slung my backpack over my shoulder. I hadn't dared to look at my parents since the day before. That would only bring more shame, fear, hurt, and more shame.

As my lawyer greeted me I stared down at my feet. She mumbled goodbyes to my parents and my parents did the same. I faintly heard my mother say goodbye to me, but I continued to ignore them and walk to the unnaturally creepy car.

"So your parents are able to visit you three times during the time you're serving. The two running the center are nice people, but they can also be very strict when they need to be. I suggest just staying on your best behavior throughout the time being." I heard my lawyer say, breaking out of my trance.

I slightly nodded, staring out the window. "What am I going to have to do there?" I asked slightly out of curiosity...mostly out of fear.

She thought for a moment before answering. "I'm not really sure, to be honest. Every place is different. I'm sure the other people there will help you through it all."

Juvie=prison=prison girls=NOT friendly=no help=I'm screwed.

/

Okay, so someone mentions the word "juvie" to you, what do you think of? Do you think of prison? Hostile prisoners? Weird looking food? Those orange/striped jumpsuit things? Steel bars encasing you in a small room which could make the sanest person crumble inside the concrete walls slowly coming closer to you as you find it harder to breath as your body goes into panic mode?

That's what I thought, too.

We pulled up to a house. A HOUSE! This didn't even make sense, if I was supposed to go to a juvenile detention center then why did it look like a normal house?

Unless she had to talk to someone first... That would make the most sense.

The place was nice, though! It really had that homey kind of feeling. It had a wrap-around porch and the entire thing was a nice shade of brown. It reminded me of a log cabin, only stained everywhere. It had a stone chimney peering out from the back of the house, and a small shed that looked like no one had been in it for years. Oh God, I can just imagine all of the spiders and spider webs in there. Yuck.

My lawyer stepped out of the car and looked at the house for a moment. I stayed in the car thinking that she just had to talk to someone before we were to go to the actual detention center thing.

She bent down and looked at me through the window. "You coming?"

I looked at her skeptically.

"Don't give me that look, you were ordered to come here. Now come on, get your things and let's go."

I looked at the house, then back at her. She motioned me to get out with her hand. Reluctantly, I opened the car door and stepped out.

"Well? Nice don't you think?" She asked me. I raised an eyebrow at her then looked back at the house.

Weirdly enough the house was in the middle of nowhere; the only other building in sight was an old abandoned church at the top of a hill. The house itself was actually on a hill; the porch overlooking farmland and what almost looked like mountains blocking it off from the rest of the world.

Although, if you were to stand behind the house there was a decline going into what looked like a small forest. Beyond that if you looked out a few miles you were able to find a small town in the distance.

All in all, this place was nothing but seclusion as far as I was concerned.

"Aren't detention centers supposed to be…you know, kind of jail-looking?" I asked after a minute of silence. My lawyer clasped her hands behind her back.

"Well yes, but you see the actual detention center was filled up…"

That's possible?

"So this is a place for the kids to go when the detention centers are full. It's almost the same thing as foster care, except for the labor."

Ooh labor, fun fun.

She walked onto the porch and up to the door. I slowly followed after her.

"So, what exactly am I going to be doing here?" I asked.

"A variety of things…" She started as she knocked on the door. "Mainly community service—that's what most detention centers do, you will be homeschooled and learn the better ways of life."

Sooo… I'm going to become religious?

I nodded as a woman who looked like she was in her late 30's answered the door. She gave us a friendly smile as she greeted us.

"Hello," My lawyer said. "I'm Sarah Forsian. I represent Samantha Forrester, she's here to serve her time of six months."

The woman perked up. "Oh yes! Hello, Samantha! I'm Kathy; I run this place with my husband, Ron. Come inside, I'll show you around."

I looked at Sarah. She nodded, motioning me to go inside. I followed Kathy into the house. It was a lot bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside. When you walked in there was a huge living room with a fireplace and two couches and two REALLY comfy-looking chairs. In the back of the room there were stairs going up to a second floor. Right next to that was a small opening to another hall which led to someplace I wasn't able to make out from my position. To my left was the kitchen, it was small but it was cute. It had a table set for four people like you would expect, and in the back of this room was an opening to something I once again was not able to make out from my position.

I was led into the kitchen. Kathy told me to leave my bags by the door for now; I would take them up later.

Sarah wished me luck then left me. Alone. I felt so awkward.

Kathy basically gave me the same speech that Sarah did, give or take a few details. I zoned out for a while until I heard a loud thump -which pretty much scared the crap out of me- from upstairs followed by a few shouts. I looked up at the ceiling.

"Oh, don't mind that. It's just the other kids here. They can get a little touchy at times." Kathy explained.

My eyes widened as I took it the wrong way.

Kathy noticed. "Oh! No no no no, not like that. They just fight a lot."

I breathed a sigh of relief, I was afraid I was going to turn into someone's bitch.

After she explained a few more things that I really couldn't care less about, she stuck out her hand.

I stared at it. "Um, hello…" I guessed.

"Phone." She ordered.

"What?"

"You're phone, give it." She ordered again, looking way too serious to be messed with.

I took the risk. "Why?"

"We don't allow technology here. For the next six months you are going to be completely shut off from the world."

She did not look like she was joking. This actually scared me a little. What would I do without my phone? Now that I thought about it I never did see a television in the living room.

I'm pretty sure I'm screwed now!

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and slapped it into Kathy's hand. She smiled again and turned back into the kind woman that met us at the door.

"Now, I assume you'd like to meet the others?" She asked, walking out of the kitchen and into the living room.

"Uh, yeah, I guess."

She smiled. "Good. They've been excited to know that someone else will be staying here for a while."

"How many are there?"

"Just four. It's not often we have more than two kids at a time here."

She walked to the base of the stairs. "Get down here! There's someone I want you to meet!" She called.

"They're here?" I heard a voice say, pretty much to the point of masculinity.

"Yes! Now come down here!" Kathy turned to look at me and smiled. "You'll learn to love the boys."

"The _boys_?" I asked in disbelief. Did she seriously say 'the boys'?

Now I KNOW I'm screwed!

I could hear a pair of footsteps run down the stairs. My stomach started to twist. Somehow doing community service with guys didn't make me the most excited person.

A tall blonde boy came down. He had a square chin and HUGE eyebrows, I mean seriously! And I thought MY eyebrows were big! But compared to this guy, my eyebrows were as thin as a blade of grass.

I also noticed he had green eyes. Don't see that too often. You have to acknowledge it when you can.

Once he hit the floor he looked at me. The excited smile that was plastered on his face was instantly banished. He stared at me in disbelief.

"She's a GIRL?"

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><p><strong>So? Te gusta? You like? I'm lazy so the next chapter will be up maybe like next week...maybe.<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

"_She's a GIRL?"_

Excuse me?

"WHAT?" Another guy's voice rang from up the stairs. I heard two more pairs of feet come down the stairs. A really tall guy came down first. His hair was medium length for a guy. His bangs were brushed over to the side of his face. Another one came from behind him, he was shorter but he was still tall. His hair was pretty cool; it was spiked up in the front.

The two taller boys stood in front of me, not enjoying what they saw. On the other hand the boy with the spiky hair seemed happy that I was here. He moved around the other two and stood in front of them, a friendly crooked smile spread across his face.

"Hi, I'm Logan." He said as he and I shook hands.

"I'm Sammie." I said politely, trying to ignore the people behind Logan. Logan smile got wider once he heard my name.

"Sammie, I like it!" I smiled and bit my lip. I do that when I'm uncomfortable. Don't get me wrong a cute guy complimenting my name was awesome! It's just the reaction I have trouble with.

I tried keeping eye contact with Logan, but my eyes kept drifting to the two taller guys behind him. They both had their arms crossed while giving me a disapproving look. Logan eventually turned around to see what I was looking at, and laughed.

"Well since it doesn't look like they're going to talk to you anytime soon," He said as he moved next to me. He pointed to the blonde. "That's Kendall, and that's James." He pointed to the tallest one.

They continued to stare at me, it was rather awkward.

"Guys, aren't you going to say hi to Sammie?" Logan asked, starting to get annoyed.

James rolled his eyes, turned around, and walked out of the room. Kendall walked away into a different room.

"Am I that repulsive?" I asked to myself.

Logan laughed. "No, we were just expecting a guy to come here. Since there were already four of us here it only seemed logical that this place was only for male delinquents."

Riiiiiight…

"So where is the fourth one?" I looked around the room. I had only seen three boys around my age, being in this house it creates theories…

I saw someone slowly come down the stairs, not making any noise like the last three did. They bent down to see who was in the room. He was cute, and Latino. Truthfully I expected these people to be very menacing. Instead I come to four very good looking guys who didn't look menacing at all.

Logan saw the boy too and smiled. "That's Carlos." He said softly. "He just came here last week. He's still kind of awkward with this whole process. He's also quiet; he won't tell us what he did."

I turned my head to Logan. "How long have you been here?"

"About a month and a half."

I was about to ask what Logan did, but Carlos came down to meet Logan and I.

"Carlos, this is Sammie." Logan introduced.

Carlos smiled shyly. "Hi."

I greeted him back when I noticed James I think it was came back into the room.

"Logan, Kathy wants to talk to you." He said. He glanced at me awkwardly, and then looked at Carlos. "This is Carlos, by the way." He pointed out, trying to make conversation.

"I know," I said. "Logan just said that."

Logan looked between the four of us.

"Okay! Can you guys show Sammie to her room while I go talk to Kathy?"

James glared at Logan.

"Please? I'm not asking you to date her or anything just do it!" He scolded as he walked out of the room. James glared at me then left in the same direction Kendall did.

Which just left me and Carlos.

"It's okay; you don't have to show me where my room is. I'll find it…eventually." I said after a short awkward silence.

Carlos shook his head. "No. I-I…got lost when…when I had to find mine…my room."

"What, did they just leave you to find it for yourself?"

He shook his head again. "No."

Something was strangely familiar about this kid.

He grabbed one of my suitcases and walked up the stairs, I followed him with my backpack and my other suitcase.

"Carlos, how old are you?" I asked as we were going up the stairs.

Carlos looked back at me. "Seventeen."

"How long have you been seventeen?"

Hey, at least this way I can suspect if he's a vampire or not.

"Couple weeks."

Darn.

"How long are you supposed to be here?" We were walking down a hallway now.

"Ten months." He looked back at me again. "What… What about you?"

"Six months."

Carlos walked up to a door and opened it. He led me inside and I scanned the room.

Surprisingly it was very nice. Simple, but nice. There was a bed in the back of the room and a simple vanity dresser thing in the opposite corner. He set my suitcase next to my bed.

"Don't be…hurt, by James and…and Kendall." He said as he was about to leave the room. "They're…really nice…"

And then he left.

/

After I had put away all of my clothes, Logan came up to tell me that it was time for dinner.

Strange, really, I would've thought that it would be like a cafeteria type thing.

Then again…Nothing has been what I thought it would be.

I sat next to Logan at the table, James and Kendall sat across from us. Carlos sat next to Logan at the end, and Kathy sat opposite from him.

"Fine!" Kendall interjected out of nowhere. "I'll say it! Sammie!"

I looked up at him.

"What did you do?"

"Kendall!" Kathy scolded.

"What? Everyone wants to know!"

James and Logan nodded. Carlos was looking at his food.

Kendall turned back to me. "So what'd you get busted for?"

I looked at Kathy, who just shook her head.

"I uh, I stole a really rare and expensive ring."

Carlos' head shot up.

"Was it made out of this really shiny platinum metal with a diamond with sapphires surrounding it and then smaller diamonds going around the rest of it?" he asked, suddenly interested.

Everyone looked at him, and then back at me.

"Uh…yeah. Yeah, it was." I answered a little weirded out. Everyone's heads turned to look at Carlos again. Carlos looked at Logan and James.

"Excuse me." Carlos said as he got up and left the room.

"Carlos!" James called as he stood up too along with Logan.

"I don't want to talk." Carlos responded. He ran up the stairs with the rest of us staring after him.

James turned to me and sat down. "How'd you do that?"

I looked at his most fascinated expression. "Do what? Upset him?" I didn't feel too special if that was the case.

"No, make him talk."

My eyebrows furrowed. "Don't you guys make him talk?"

"No. Well, yes, but that's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?"

"Will you shut up and let me explain?"

"Only after you tell me what you meant!"

"I will once you—"

"Okay stop it!" Logan interjected.

"My God, are you two going to be doing that the whole time you're here?" Kendall asked, annoyed.

"If that's the case then I'm going to go stay in the church." Logan threatened, though it wasn't much of a threat at all.

Kendall protested. "Aww no, Logan! That place is our…" He trailed off, now standing, looking at Kathy who was still with us at the table. "That place is just…creepy! Oh, so very creepy!" He corrected.

Kathy and I stared at Kendall like there was something wrong with him. Like, mentally. Or maybe…like we had just seen unicorns come in through the roof and do the tango with the lamp…Yeah like that.

"Uh, so um…Hey Kathy!" Kendall said, trying to get out of the awkward situation. "Where's Ron?"

Kathy seemed to forget whatever Kendall had said before, and smiled. "He just had to do some errands today. He said he'll be back late."

Kendall nodded understandingly. He and Logan sat back down at the table. "So how long are you here for, Sammie?" Kendall asked, creating another conversation.

"Six months." I answered simply. The three boys continued to stare at me like I had something more interesting to say.

"And?" James replied.

"And what? That's basically it. I stole a ring; I got caught; now I'm in…whatever this is."

By this time Kathy had disappeared from the kitchen, and we had all trailed up the stairs.

"It's basically a foster home. Er, rather it was. That's why it's so big. The government ran out of room in the detention centers in '98. So they found this place where people like us could go, when there's no room in the original place we were supposed to go. It still serves as a foster home, but no one ever comes here because it's so secluded. The closest thing here is the old abandoned church up the hill and the farm next door."

Kendall and James stared at him.

"Okay, James and I both have been here longer and even we didn't know all that." Kendall deadpanned.

Logan laughed. "He's really smart, if you haven't noticed yet." James informed me. Logan chuckled again.

"If you're so smart then what did you do to get you in here?" I asked.

"Technically I didn't do anything. Basically I was framed."

"By who?"

"Classmates."

"What'd _they_ do?"

"Burned down half of my school."

"Woah! Lucky!"

"Lucky? I was framed for something I didn't even do. Now I'm stuck here for a year."

"Wow, Logie. I am shocked to know you feel that way!" Kendall put his hand over his heart like he was experiencing some kind of pain. Logan just rolled his eyes and turned back to me.

"You see, for my study hall I went into the auditorium to study. About halfway through the class these five guys came in laughing and talking. They didn't notice me there so I ignored them and went back to studying. A few minutes later I started to smell cigarette smoke, so I went to the back of the stage where I found all of the guys smoking. I asked them to stop—"

"Because Logan is kind of prissy." James whispered loudly. Kendall and James both looked really bored. Obviously they've heard this story more than five times.

"You guys don't smoke either!" Logan retorted.

"I used to…" Kendall admitted. "But not anymore."

"Either way, smoking is not good. It causes you to get lung cancer which—"

"Okay, Logan. Thank you; we don't need a medical lecture." Kendall stopped him, putting his hand out in front of him.

Logan sighed. "Anyway, they started to make fun of me. One of them threw their lit cigarette at me. I dodged it and it caught on the curtains. Sure enough it began to smoke and go up in flames. After everyone had gotten out of the school, the kids who were in the auditorium with me said that I was the one who set the stage on fire."

"Didn't you do anything to stop them?" I asked.

"I tried, but they chose to believe them instead of me. The following month I was sent here."

"And met us!" Kendall added, gesturing to James and himself, also wiggling his eyebrows.

Logan and James laughed, Kendall looking pretty proud of himself for being humorous.

"Wait, so how'd you guys get here?" I asked.

"Attempted manslaughter." Kendall said.

"WOAH! Really?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Nope."

"Then what did you come in here for?"

"I told you. It was for attempted manslaughter."

"But you just said—"

"I was framed too."

"But how? How could you be blamed for something like that?"

"By people who can think they literally can get away with anything."

"That's basically what happened with all of us." James butt in.

"Why, what'd you do?" I asked with a little bit of poison in my voice. It wasn't voluntary, but I've gotten to the point where I find that he doesn't like me too much.

"I raped someone." He admitted.

"Oh, God! Seriously?"

"NO!" James shouted like I was an idiot. "Gosh, don't you learn anything? I just said we were all blamed for what we did."

I tried to process this. "…So you did do it." I concluded.

"NO—well, not really." James said, lost in thought. "Her dad didn't like me too much, so she said I raped her."

"Ohh, interesting…" I did not need to know that...

Suddenly something came into my mind. "Wait," I said. "You're saying that all of us are innocent?"

"Yup!" Logan said quite cheerfully. "I like to call it the House of Innocence."

I blinked a couple times. "I'm sorry. The House of what?"

"The House of Innocence." He repeated. "Neither of the three of us are really guilty. Someone caused us to be here—in this house—and it was not ourselves."

"The three of you? Are you saying I'm guilty?" I accused, crossing my arms.

It was quiet for a few seconds. Then they all said at the same time:

"Yes."

"For your information, that is not necessarily true!" I said matter-of-factly.

"Okay," James said as he rolled his eyes. "Then what happened?"

I glared at him. "To be honest, I don't really know. All I _do_ know, though, is that I was walking down the street in my town. Some random guy runs into me and knocks me down, he apologizes then runs away. I start walking again when I feel something in my pocket. When I pulled it out I found the ring. That's when a police car pulled up and asked me if I had seen anything. Next thing I know I'm being shoved into a cop car while the dude is explaining my rights."

There was a pause before anyone responded.

"…Cool story." James finally stated. He walked past Logan and I and went into his room and shut the door.

What is his problem?


	3. Chapter 3

**I just wanted to say thank you to all of the people that reviewed. :) I get so excited when people do, it increases my confidence. But WOW it has been a LONG while since I updated this. Thanks to the people who have been so so patient for this. School and sports can really get in the way of writing :P. This chapter is kind of bland, but it's also kind of important.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except for the people who have nothing to do with Big Time Rush whatsoever.**

* * *

><p>"Get up."<p>

I completely ignored the voice and buried my face in the pillow some more, wanting those few blissful moments of sleep to come back.

"I'm not kidding. Get up." They ordered again. This was starting to annoy me. Usually I'm a pretty obedient girl; it's just the sleep part that causes me to be a bit of a snitch.

"No." I grumbled.

"Come on, everyone is downstairs waiting for you. And the sooner we get done with today the better." Wow, they sounded irritated. I wonder who **that** could be...

"I feel like we should start it later in the day." I mumbled again into the pillow. I could tell it was early. I'm not a morning person when someone wakes me up.

"Fine."

Suddenly I felt two hands forcefully pushing on my back and sending me to the ground with a loud thud, sheets coming down with me.

"Okay...ow! What was that for?" I shouted, pulling the sheets off of me and standing up to only find James standing there with a victorious smirk on his face.

"You wouldn't get up!" He said nonchalantly. My expression turned into one of annoyance, anger, and pain from falling on the hardwood floor earlier.

"Okay, so at what point did you think it was a good idea to just push me off the bed?" I demanded. He just shrugged.

"It seemed like an effective way to get you to wake up. And look! It worked!" A cocky grin grew across his lips.

"Well congratulations! Now leave me alone!" I ordered pointing to the door. James rolled his eyes and walked out of the bedroom.

The only thing I really liked about this bedroom was that it was at the end of the hall, it was also across the hall from Kendall's bedroom, but I'd much rather have it here than inbetween two other rooms. There was also a bathroom connected to my bedroom, which is also on the small list of things I'm greatful for in this wierd house...jail...thing.

After I had showered (which really got me in a better mood) and dressed I hesitantly walked downstairs where I saw Carlos, Logan, James and Kendall all sitting in a row infront of Kathy. Logan turned his head towards the sqeaking stairs and smiled.

"Hey Sammie!" He greeted.

"Oh finally! Where have you been?" Kendall asked cheerfully. Wierd, I almost remember him kind of hating me. Not as much as James seemed to...but yeah.

I smirked. "Well I was having the most wonderful sleep when suddenly my face was introduced to the floor." I glared at James as I walked down the rest of the stairs. He was slightly chuckling. I smiled a little, liking the fact that he found that humorous. It's hard to hate someone when I've made them laugh...even if it was because of my own slight pain.

Logan raised an eyebrow and slowly turned his head to look at James. "Really? James the point was to wake her up not break her face." He scolded. James just rolled his eyes. "I got her up didn't I?" He retorted.

Suddenly I smelled the scent of waffles and syrup...and bacon! I didn't realize how hungry I was until now.

"Are we having breakfast now?" I asked, the words mainly coming from my stomach more than my mind.

An awkward silence fell upon the room. Logan and Kathy both made an embarrassed look. Kendall looked around awkwardly, and James...just laughed.

And Carlos...he did nothing.

"We already had breakfast." James stated, still laughing a bit. He seems to take a little more pleasure in all of this than I'd like.

"Really?" I asked, dumbfounded.

I'm having an awesome day so far.

"Yup. Really." James confirmed, sounding bored.

I rolled my eyes. Fine, I can go without breakfast for today.

"Sammie, Sweetie." Kathy said, moving towards me. "James said that you didn't want anything."

I glared at him. Bastard.

I smiled back at Kathy and said: "That's okay, I'm not that hungry anyway."

"If you're sure..." She said cautiously.

The room entered in an awkward silence that just seemed to drag on for a while until Kathy spoke up again.

"Uh, we're about to start the lesson, Sammie. Please take a seat next to James and we'll start." She inquired. I raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Are you serious? Why can't I sit next to Carlos or Logan or someone?" As I tried to reason with her, I couldn't help but tense up and raise my voice a little at her. Not my best move.

Kathy instantly crossed her arms and put on a stern face. I bit my lip and relaxed my posture.

"Samantha, this program is not for your pleasure. This is specifically for the benefit of your future. Whether you follow it or not is your choice, but I highly suggest that you do things the first time they are asked and not question it if you don't want to stay here longer than you have to."

I stood there uncomfortably darting my eyes around the room. I looked at Logan for some kind of reassurance or encouragment or something. All I saw was him staring at me with pleading eyes. My eyebrows knitted together as he jerked his head towards the seat next to James; a gesture for me to sit down.

Reluctantly moving from my position and taking a seat Kathy smiled and was once again the friendly woman she was not two minutes ago.

I peered over at Logan again, who was half-smiling sympathetically. It wasn't really that much of a scolding but for some reason Logan looked more than relieved to see Kathy smiling again...

I glanced at James as well, he wasn't smirking or having a self-confident look on his face like he usually did (as far as I knew him, that is). He was staring at his hands on the small table in front of him. There was almost no expression. Even if there was, it looked like one of regret, pain, and sorrow. Kendall and Carlos were basically doing the same thing. I had no idea what was going on.

"Let's get started, shall we?" Kathy's voice caused the loss of my focus on the four juvenile boys. All of their heads turned to face her almost simultaniously. The blank expressions were now replaced with faces of small interest and readiness in a matter of seconds.

Honestly, I really did try paying attention for the most part, but this was one of the most confusing things I've ever had to learn.

"Find the value of x which is equal to the subset of negative six and four." Kathy said as she wrote out the foreign equation on a chalk board that kind of looked like xl-6y4l. I had no idea people used those anymore. I must admit it got me a little excited to see a chalkboard in a long while.

Staring at this problem I began to rack through my brain trying to figure out if I had done something similar to this in my, I guess now old, high school. I couldn't find anything in there for the life of me. I looked over at James who was writing the problem down on a piece of paper with ease.

I leaned over to him. "James!" I whispered as quietly as I could. His pencil stopped and his eyes darted towards me.

"I am so confused, what are we doing?" I whispered again, a bit louder this time.

"Math...?" He stated, making it sound more as an obvious question like I was stupid.

"No duh! I meant the x-subset thing!" I glared at him. He quietly scoffed.

"Go ask Logan! And shut up, you're going to get us in trouble!" He returned the glare and continued to scribble numbers and unknown variables on the paper before him. I was slowly starting to enter panic mode.

"I can't! He's all the way over there and you seem to know what you're doing anyway! Why can't you just help me?" My volume slowly started to rise again, now being audible to everyone in the room without me noticing. Kathy walked up to where I sat and the scolding woman was back.

"Is there something you'd like to discuss Samantha?" She asked in a menacing tone. I felt like shrinking down into the chair just to avoid the attention.

"I-uh...no. I just was, um, c-confused...We didn't d-do this at m-my old school-" I managed to stutter out before she cut me off.

"Looks like to me you were trying to retrieve answers from James." She accused. I seriously thought we were taking notes here!

"No! I swear I was just asking if-"

"Miss Forrester if you don't mind I would suggest you not try to get by on other people's answers. It would be very difficult to succeed in your time being here if you wish to continue. For now I would like you to work in the fields until 8:00 tomorrow night."

Um...okay?

She turned to James. "That goes for you too, Mr. Diamond."

"WHAT?" He yelled, jumping from his crouched position over the table to sitting upright in his chair.

"You heard me, you and Miss Forrester until 8 tomorrow night."

"But I didn't even do anything!" He protested, his voice raising higher in defense.

"You know you're not allowed to speak unless spoken to in lessons. Plus, you were helping her."

James sat there with his mouth agape, trying to form words but failing. His head turned to me, forming a scowl.

"I'll talk to Ron about further actions." She added. All of the guys' heads snapped in her direction. "Class dismissed for an hour. I want you all back here quiet and ready to focus." Kathy ordered and walked out of the room towards the back of the house.

I turned to look at the guys, seeing them frozen in their spots. They looked completely terrified. Kendall was the first to speak up after swallowing harshly.

"D-don't worry James. There's still a chance it won't happen. Even if it does, it can't be that bad this time! You can't get so mad after a little thing like that!" He tried reasoning with him. James swallowed and looked at Kendall.

"When have you known Ron _not_ to get mad at any little thing?" James countered. Kendall looked down then around to Logan who was watching the pair.

"Why? What's the matter with Ron?" I wondered out loud. Four heads automatically turned my way.

For a while they just stared at me. They still looked really scared, but this time there was a sense of sympathy floating around as well. For the first time today Carlos said something.

"We can't tell you..."

/

The rest of the morning was full of anxiety, fear, and it was intensely awkward. Kathy came back once more as a kind and gentle woman. She first explained the x-subset thing to me and within a matter of minutes I understood it...kind of. She told me that we would start something new the day after tomorrow, of which I was completely relieved at.

Surprisingly it was more like a foster home like Logan said. There was no bland cafeteria where you ate funky food, instead it was like having a family meal. There were no jail cells, only bedrooms. No wierd jumpsuits or matching outfits, only your own clothing to cover your own body. Instead of having continuously grumpy and intimidating instructors, you had a sweet woman taking care of you as if you were her own child...as long as you didn't piss her off, which I have recently learned _not_ to do.

We have four main subjects we go through during the day. There's math, English, science, the social studies or global studies or history or whatever you want to call it. We also have a half an hour inbetween each subject.

After we finished everything and Kathy had made dinner, I was going to meet Ron for the first time.

He was tall and big built. He had a long face and icy blue eyes. His hair was a little curly and it curled over his ears a bit. I expected him to be a lot freakier to be quite honest, but I should seriously start considering the inevitable around here.

"Ronald, I need to talk to you." Kathy called him into the kitchen once he greeted the guys. His eyes lingered on me for a moment before turning and entering the kitchen with Kathy.

Logan and I were sitting next to eachother on one couch. James was sitting in a chair next to us, and Kendall and Carlos were sitting on the couch opposite from us.

"He's in a good mood today." Kendall stated.

I raised an eyebrow. "He looked pretty nonchalant to me."

Kendall nodded with a small smirk. "Exactly. He's not always in the _friendliest_ mood."

"Shhh!" James interjected, he leaned towards the kitchen in his chair. "I wanna hear what they're saying."

"Come, on, Kath. Don't you think that's enough? It's her first day isn't it? Tell you what, if she messes up tomorrow then I'll do it, okay?"

"But Ron-"

"Just...send her and James to bed or something without dinner. They don't have to eat."

"It certainly helps in the process of maintaining life though..." I mumbled to myself.

"Shush!" James scolded again. I rolled my eyes and continued to listen in, but Kathy soon came into the livingroom with all of us leaning towards where they had their conversation. We all quickly stood up straight and glanced at her. Her cold eyes flickered between James and I.

"I want you two to go upstairs and stay up there for the rest of the night. Don't come down for anything." She ordered quietly. James and I glanced at eachother. "Now!" She raised her voice and James and I instantly stood up. We scurried up the stairs and I heard Kathy let out an annoyed sigh.

"James..." I called up to him. He was walking faster than usual to his room.

"Don't talk to me." He grumbled. He went in his room and shut his door. I followed suit and opened the door back up and strolled inside.

"James, look, I'm sorry! I didn't know something little like that could get us in so much trouble."

He spun on his heel to face me. He towered over me. Not feeling too confident.

"That's one of the main points of this system. You can't know what is going on anywhere at anytime, or else we all get punished. You have to figure it out for yourself." He explained menacingly. I bit my lip.

"But why though?"

James' frown softened a little, and he shook his head.

"I can't deal with this right now. Something's wrong." He mumbled to himself as he turned back around and walked towards his bed. "I need to talk to Logan, or Kendall, or...someone."

"Talk to me." I offered quietly. Just because I don't like the guy doesn't mean I can't be helpful.

James spun again with a scowl on his features. "No way." He spat. "I am definetly not going to talk to someone who doesn't even know what they're doing half the time."

"Then help me learn."

James looked down to his bed. His eyebrows furrowed, lost in thought.

"...No..." He finally spoke, his voice low. "Just...no, I can't." He started to walk towards me. "Can you leave...please? I want to be alone."

He stood directly infront of me, towering over me again. I stared in his hazel eyes and for once they didn't look annoyed. They looked...hopeless, tired, hurt.

I would've continued to stare into his eyes, maybe find something so I could change his mind, but that would be wierd and creepy. He seemed to be in a rush to be alone anyway, so I nodded and walked towards the door. I stopped just before I left and looked back to him.

"I'm sorry, James." I told him and walked into my room. He shut his door behind me.

/

"Kendall, can we talk to you for a sec?"

"Sure, what's up?"

"I think we should take Sammie tonight...er-We do."

There was a pause.

"Not tonight, guys."

"But I don't want her to be traumatized tomorrow. Can't we do it just to be safe? For her sake?"

"Logan, you _always_ want to take the safe route."

"It helps."

"No, it doesn't. We took Carlos and that only made it worse for him. Didn't Carlos?"

"I'm not sure how much different it would have been without it. I still had fun thought."

"This isn't about **fun**, Carlos."

"Then what is it about, Kendall? You just want all five of us to live a miserable life here and not try to find anything good in it at all?"

"No! I'm just saying that-"

"Forget it. We won't do anything tonight. Come on, Carlos, let's go."

"What about Sam?"

"Not tonight Carlos, apparently it's not the the best idea."

Silence.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey, guess what? LOGAN CHAPTER YAYY! Yeah, This one is going to be in Logan's POV...just because it can...Okay, I have a reason, but that'd spoil it for later! Mwahahaha Isn't anxiety fun? But yeah some chapters could switch between Sammie's, Logan's, Carlos', and maybe even go to third person...I'm not sure yet, we'll leave that to later chapters.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the people of BTR**

* * *

><p>~Logan~<p>

I hated these days. Hated them, hated them, hated them. It was inhumane and an act of pure laziness on Kathy and Ron's part. This place should seriously be shut down.

"Thinking out loud again, Logie?"

I jumped at the sudden voice. I hadn't realized I was talking. I turned around and saw Kendall standing at the base of the stairs, smirking.

I blushed. "Oh...sorry. I didn't think I was vocalizing that at all."

Kendall shook his head. "Don't be, you're right about everything." He walked around the couch and sat next to me infront of the fireplace. "I hate it here, really. I've been here a year and a half and it has barely changed at all."

My eyebrows furrowed. "What changed?"

"Ron and Sammie." He stated plainly. I sighed at that. "I'm going to feel so guilty."

Now it was Kendall's turn to be confused. "About what?"

"About Sam. Really, there's no way we can stop it. And I really, _really, _hate watching."

Kendall sighed and put an arm around me. "I know, Loges. I do too. It's illegal too, isn't it?"

Before I could answer, I heard footsteps coming from upstairs.

"Okay, shush. It might be Kathy or someone." I warned, and I pushed his arm off me. The footsteps got closer and closer until they hit the top of the stairs. They became soft and hesitant. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sam walk down the stairs. She seemed to be searching for something, and I knew exactly what it was. She looked around then walked over to the kitchen.

"You're not gonna find anything." I said, she turned around. "There's no breakfast."

"How'd you know I was looking for that?"

I smiled and twisted around so I was facing her. "Carlos did the same thing."

Sammie bit her lip. She walked to one of the couches and sat down. "Okay...So do we get anything to eat?"

"Nope!" Kendall said, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. He leaned back far enough so he was laying on the floor. He pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket and put them on. To top it off he rested his head on his arms folded behind him. "The only thing we get to eat today is lunch and quite possibly a little bit of dinner." He explained with smile. I rolled my eyes and turned my head to see Sammie. She looked as though a puppy just got ran over.

"We barely get _any _food?" She asked in disbelief. We both nodded with our lips pursed. "What the hell I got up early for nothing?" We nodded again.

Kendall repositioned his head. "Shit just got real...Or, it's about to." I whipped my head back around to Kendall and slapped his side. He flinched and raised his sunglasses. "Ow, what?" I gave him a stern look and he sighed. He sat back up into the position he was in before.

Sammie sighed as well. "So," She began, "What are we gonna do today?"

Kendall and I looked at eachother and bit our lip.

/

"Are you serious? Isn't this illegal or something?" Sam shouted after she was given a hoe. The guys and I just bit our lip, and got to work. If we couldn't have an impact because of what we said, why try? Even if we had...they had to be brave beyond anyone's compare.

Earlier we had all started to walk down the road with Ron to the farm next door. Sam thought we were all taking a long walk; she was thrilled. Although, when we headed to the field, Ron had handed her the hoe and explained everything. We plow the fields for the winter crops in the fall, then we plow again in the spring. In the summer is when we harvest all the crops and do any other crap Ron had planned for us.

Anyway, Ron's face twisted against Sammie's words of protest. I really wanted to go up to Sammie and pull her away...tell her she couldn't be so hard-headed. But if I did, she'd only get it worse and I'd get it as well. I was too afraid, I was always too afraid...

Ron didn't say anything other than, "Just do it." He turned on his heel and left the way he came. Sam watched him leave with a look of disgust before turning to us.

"I can't believe this. Is he too lazy to go out and get a machine and do this himself?"

"Just leave it alone, Sammie." I told her in a monotone voice. I plunged my tool into the growingly cold and hard ground.

"How can I leave it alone? Logan, we're basically slaves doing this! This is child labor! We're not getting paid, I highly doubt any of you volunteered to do this. Why should we be forced to?"

"It teaches us discipline and it builds character and some other crap." Kendall complained. He stopped what he was doing and leaned on the hoe. "Plus, there's nothing you can do about it. So like Logan said, 'leave it alone'."

She rolled her eyes. "Well this is ridiculous. I'm not going to do it." She dropped her hoe on the dirt and crossed her arms. Carlos looked up at her.

"Sammie, you have to! If you don't...Please stay." He pleaded. Sammie only raised an eyebrow.

"What are they gonna do? Send me to bed without dinner again? Oh, no. We can't have that!" She mocked.

"Sammie..." I warned, narrowing my eyes at her.

"Don't do this..." Carlos pleaded again.

"What are we planting, anyway?"

"...Nothing." I informed her.

She blinked. "I'm sorry, Logan. I refuse to do this. I'm not going to do Ron's stupid dirty work for him when he could do it himself. I'm going back up to the 'house'." She put quotation marks over the word 'house'. She turned around and started to leave when James suddenly shot up and grabbed her hand before she got too far away.

"Sammie..." He said softly. The rest of us, including Sammie, raised an eyebrow. "Don't, please. Stay here."

We were all frozen in our spots. I don't think anyone was expecting that.

Sammie slowly pulled her hand away from James'. He swallowed as Sam picked her hoe up again. Reluctantly she began to work, the rest of us followed.

"Hey, think of it this way:" Kendall said after a couple minutes of silence. "Only six hours until lunch."

/

We made it through those six hours, well, Sammie did. That was the most important thing. Right now we were all sitting in the kitchen having an extremely awkward lunch. Kathy acted the same as she usually did, Sammie was nonchalant while the guys and I were almost shaking in anticipation for Ron's sentance. Ron...Ron was unusually happy again. It's **really **starting to creep me out. He's never this happy. Something's wrong...

Kathy cleared the table after we gave her our thanks for the lunch. Ron stood up to wash the dishes, although he looked kind of annoyed, probably thinking we should be doing it instead of him. We continued to sit awkwardly until Kathy left the room. Sammie was the first to speak, though it wasn't much.

"I'll be right back...I'm going to my room to get something quick." She said, slowly pushing her chair back and standing up. Ron smiled and nodded, and watched her disappear upstairs.

Suddenly Ron whipped around and slammed his hands on the table, causing the table to jump and our bodies to shake in fear.

"What did she do?" He ordered, that painful glare we hate so much aimed at all of us.

"...Do-Do what?" James choked out. Ron grabbed his hair and pulled it back roughly, James letting out a groan of pain.

"Don't play dumb with me, Diamond. You know exactly what and who I'm talking about. Now talk." He ordered again, getting in James' face and gave his hair one last pull before letting it go. James' hand reached up to hold the back of his head and fix it until it looked perfect again. "I expected her to come back within the first hour, she didn't. Why not?" He gave each of us a look and stopped at James again once he gulped.

"We stopped her!" Kendall blurted out before James' hair experienced any more abuse. Even though we wouldn't really call that abuse anymore...

"She wanted to leave, but we stopped her! She was working!" Kendall explained hesitantly, but gained more confidence as he went on.

"Why the hell did you stop her?" He demanded.

"So she wouldn't have to face you!" Carlos piped up. Ron turned to Carlos; he instantly shrunk down. "That...that's good, isn't it? W-we got her to work. That's what you w-want, r-right?"

Ron bit his lip in thought. He looked over at me and gave a devilish smirk. "You haven't spoken yet, Logan. This is a democracy, where everyone gets their say." He spoke smoothly. He was on to something, he always used that voice when he had something brewing in that horrible horrible head of his. Kendall scoffed at Ron's words, but instantly bit his lip and looked down when Ron snapped his head in his direction. Ron gave an annoyed grumble. He scanned the four of us. "You kids better be pretty damn grateful you're not getting anything for the next couple days. A government agent is coming here to do a biannual surveillance of the place. The government doesn't know about Samantha, so she might not be so lucky." I gulped, Ron continued as he leaned towards me. "So tell me, Logan: How was her work? And if you don't answer honestly...Well let's just say you'll have a bit of an ailment the next couple of days, hmm?"

I swallowed. "She...she was a bit uhh...reluctant and...s-she was kind of stubborn a-at first..."

Ron held up a hand to stop me. That creepy smile came back on his lips. "See? This is why I like you the most, you always give me the information I need."

I groaned and let my head fall into my hands. I loathed how I did that. I hate how I'd sputter out the worst things about the scenarios in order to not get punished. I jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder, I looked up and Ron actually looked impressed with me.

Okay, something is seriously wrong.

"All of you. Get up. Now." Ron demanded. We instantly stood and walked into the livingroom. Sammie started to come back down the stairs with her long hair up in a ponytail at the top of her head.

Oh, God. Here we go...

"You!" Ron shouted once he spotted Sammie. Sammie raised her eyebrows in response as she took the last couple steps down the stairs. Ron stormed over before she even reached the bottom and grabbed the back of her neck. He twisted around and threw her against the wall, eminating a loud bang and a picture or two falling off the wall in the other room.

Sammie slid down the wall. Her eyes had gone huge in shock and confusion. She glanced at us then back up at Ron who was towering over her with fists clenched.

"You are by far the most stubborn girl I've ever had to deal with." He bent down to be eye level with Sam. "You know what happens when kids are stubborn? They get punished, just like any other facility. Except this way is a little more effective, I think." He pushed her down so she was lying flat on the floor. He stood back up and smirked. "But that's just my opinion." He lifted his leg behind him and swung it forward with so much force right into Sammie's side. She screamed out in pain and the guilt started growing more and more. I caused this. I always caused it. Now it's worse than it has ever been.

With every kick and every punch and every pained yelp that was created by Ron's rage, it became so much harder to watch. That was the worst part. We were forced to watch others get beaten or else we'd get the same.

Oh, Sammie... I can only imagine what she must be thinking right now.

~Sammie~

Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow.

~Logan~

Poor girl.

After Ron was...satisfied, with his work. He looked at the four of us and scowled.

"Get her out of my sight." He ordered, pointing at Sammie. "I don't want to see any of you down here for the rest of the night. Just stay upstairs for all I care."

We all jumped forward at his...authorative request but James picked up Sammie before the rest of us even reached her. He started to carry her upstairs, Kendall, Carlos and I trailing behind, each of us recieving a glare from Ron.

Once we reached the top of the stairs and out of earshot from Ron, James turned towards me. "Logan, what should I do with her?" He asked. Sammie opened her eyes and made a weird face. She made a move to look up at him but winced and automatically stopped moving completely. It really looked like Sammie was trying hard to not cry or groan in pain or anything, she just stayed completely still in James' arms.

"Put her in her room for now." I advised. James nodded and we all walked to Sam's room. He went to her bed and set her down. He wasn't gentle enough because Sam yelled out a few "Ow"s on the way down. James pulled his arms away from her like he was burned once she was on the bed.

"Sorry! Sorry...I'm sorry." He mumbled and walked back to stay by the door where the rest of us were. I slid past James and approached Sammie.

"Hey," I greeted. She opened her eyes and looked at me. "Hello," She greeted back. "How are you feeling?" I asked her. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked away from me and bit her lip.

"Well I'll tell you one thing..." She said after a moment. "I did not expect that to happen."

I smirked sympathetically, but quickly snapped out of it. "Um...Does anything hurt?"

She rolled her eyes. "No, not at all. He only beat the absolute crap out of me for fun and was careful enough to not injure me."

"That's the thing though," Kendall cut in, leaning against the door frame. "He _is_ carful enough not to really hurt us. If he did, then wouldn't be able to use us for his labor."

"The government would also shut this place down if they found out." I added, looking back at her. She raised an eyebrow.

"How far does he usually go?" She asked.

"One time I was pushed into a mirror. Got a couple scars from that." Kendall reminisced. "He pushed James down the stairs once. He sprained his wrist."

Carlos, Sammie and I all had our mouths hanging open. I had never heard this before, when was this? Why did he do that? He never does anything that bad!

I tried to voice these questions, but they only came out as nervous stutters that didn't make any sense at all.

"When was that?" Sam asked, surprised.

"It was like my first year here. Well, _our_ first year, actually. Relatively all in the same week, it happened. I don't remember what it was but we pissed him off somehow. We were in the dining room when he started and there used to be a mirror in there until he pushed me in to it and it shattered. I got a couple scratches on my face and a few on my arm. James just thought that he was going to get yelled at so when he came out of his room Ron was standing at the top of the stairs. He...He bent his arm backwards then pushed him down the stairs. A couple days later a couple government agents came over. I had to lie and say I 'accidentaly broke a glass over my head' or something stupid like that because the scratches had on my face were still not fully healed. James had to fake it and say that there was nothing wrong with him even though his wrist was sprained and he had like two or three bruises on his face. He used his man make-up for that..." Kendall smirked as he looked back at James. Carlos looked over at him in amusement as well as Sammie.

"You wear make-up?" Carlos questioned, laughing at the same time.

"Tough guy ain't so tough." Sammie teased, giving a small smile before wincing in pain.

I chuckled and turned my attention back to Sammie. "He's really not too. He's actually just a big softie." I whispered. She let out a single laugh while James was explaining to Kendall and Carlos that is wasn't make-up, it was simply cover-up and he just happened to have a lot of it. Plus, he told them how he didn't use it anymore because if he wasn't going to be around people worthy of his existance, why waste extra perfection? Not that he wasn't perfect already, because he insisted that he was.

"Okay, where does it hurt the most?" I asked. She pointed to her wrist, which was now swelling and turning a mixture of blue, black, and purple. My eyebrows furrowed as I brought it closer to my face, being very careful not to hurt her. I looked back at her.

"This is what hurts the most?" I asked her. She nodded.

"That and my head."

I nodded. I turned back around to the other guys, still discussing James' appearances. "Kendall." I called. He turned around and raised his eyebrows in response. "Go and get an ice pack from the freezer for Sam's head."

Kendall gave me a questionable look. "He just told us to stay upstairs...incase you didn't hear him...?" He reminded me, gesturing towards the stairs.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes. I know, Kendall. There's a mini fridge in Ron and Kathy's room. She always keeps a couple in there."

Kendall straightened. He opened his mouth to say something, but he closed it and was off to get the ice pack.

I turned to Sammie again. "Can you sit up?" I asked, she nodded and pushed herself up so her back was leaning against the headrest. She used her left hand to do it, since I was still holding her injured one.

I looked back at the door-again-and only saw Carlos standing there. "Where'd James go?" I asked, pointing to the spot where said boy previously was standing.

Carlos looked back then back at me. He shrugged. "Not sure, probably back to his room." He said. Kendall came back with the ice pack and waved it over his head to grab my attention. I nodded.

"Carlos, come here and hold Sam's arm. Make sure she doesn't use it, and bring that ice pack over here." I looked back at Sammie. "Hold it where it hurts on your head. Don't move your wrist either. Carlos will be watching you." She rolled her eyes and said she'll be fine. I walked out of the room and down the hall to my room, Kendall following right behind.

"What are you going to do?" He asked as we walked into my room. I opened one of my drawers and rummaged through it until I found my miniature med kit. Kendall chuckled once he saw it. "You would."

I glanced up at him and opened it. "I'm going to wrap Sam's arm. I think it might be sprained."

Kendall looked back at me. "Sprained? Why would he do that? He never does that!"

"You just said James sprained _his_ wrist and you got a mirror to the face!" I protested, pulling out the wrap.

"Yeah but that was _before_ he had to make up stories on how we were injured. Now he doesn't because he knows ahead of time and he thinks things through. He wouldn't do it so bad it really hurt someone!"

"Whatever. I'm trying to figure it out. Something's up with Ron, and I have a feeling something bad is going to happen."

~Carlos~

I pulled up a chair next to Sammie's bed and sat down, handing her the ice pack. She put it on the back of her head and shot me an appreciative smile. I looked down at her wrist. It was swollen and turning black and blue. I made a small face at it. Medical stuff and injuries and blood creep me out. I don't understand how Logan does it.

"You don't have to do anything with it if you don't want to, Carlos. I'd rather you not, anyway." She said, smiling at me. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes again. I studied her face, how badly injured it was. Not too bad, really. She had a split lip and her cheek was bruising a little bit, but that was all. I saw multiple bruises forming along her arms. I could only imagine how much pain she should be in, but it looked like she was just tired. It didn't make any sense. The first time it happened to me it wasn't nearly this bad. Sam made a face as she reached up to handle her now mangled ponytail.

"Hey! Ah ah ah! You can't use that hand, remember?" I reminded her. She rolled her eyes.

"I have to have something to hold my hair in place so it doesn't all fall out! I'll just hold it there, I promise." She smiled and begun to slowly pull out her her ponytail, her face wincing in pain every once in a while. She opened her eyes after her hair fell around her shoulders and looked at me. "Hey, Carlos?"

I raised my eyebrows in response. "Yeah?"

"You seem a little more open than you did the other day when I first came here."

I smirked and shrugged. "I don't know, I'm a little more comfortable. I mean, it's like I'm just going to school now...with labor...and beatings." I pursed my lips.

"...That doesn't sound like school at all."

"I know." I murmured, hanging my head. We both chuckled, and I raised my head again. "But just having another girl here makes it seem like school just a little bit more...so I don't know." I shrugged again and looked down at my shoes.

"You ran away, too. The other day I mean...when I said what I was arrested for?" She said quietly. I shot my head up and looked at her with wide eyes.

"W-what about it?" I asked nervously.

"Somehow you knew about it. You knew what the ring looked like exactly. Why?"

I swallowed. "Uh...I don't really-"

"I'm back." Logan's voice rang through the room. He had a bunch of med stuff with him.

I leaned back in my chair and suddenly became interested in my hands. Logan stood next to me. "Dude, switch." He told me. I got up and brought another chair next to Logan. I don't know why I didn't just leave the room, it would've taken off the awkwardness and embarrassment off my shoulders.

Logan took Sam's wrist and started to wrap this weird stretchy thing around it. Sam raised an eyebrows at this.

"What, is it broken or something?" She asked. Logan chuckled and shook his head.

"No, just sprained." He answered.

"Sprained?" I asked, dumbfounded. "How is that possible? He never does that!"

"Never does what?" Sam asked, completely lost.

"Ron only hurts us enough so that nothing scares or has lasting damage. This is like a once in a while thing." Logan explained, continuing to wrap her arm.

"So those government people don't suspect anything? Like Kendall said?"

Logan nodded. "There's one coming in a couple days. I guess they don't know you're here yet so he went almost all-out on you. You're supposed to stay up here until they leave."

Sammie made a face of disbelief. "What? I don't wanna do that!"

"You have to."

"Or else he's gonna beat you up again!" I added. Sammie looked at me wide-eyed.

Logan nodded in agreement. "Yup!" I looked at him as he cut off the funky thing he wrapped her arm with.

"Well that's not very humane, is it?"

"To him it is." I said, standing up. "I'm uh, gonna go back to my room."

Logan nodded and I headed to the door when Sam called my name. I turned my head around to see her.

"You can tell me when you're ready, okay?" She said, being all sweet and innocent.

I hung my head down and walked away. She won't know, she can't know.

She can't know I put her in here.


	5. Chapter 5

**_Okay so the last chapter didn't end like I wanted it to. I wanted to get more into James' backstory...But it's okay! It came out all funky and somewhat confusing and mysterious like I am primarily intending this whole thing to be. And I don't like the bold print anymore, so I'm swtiching to the italicized one...that is also bold._**

**_I'm not so hot about this chapter, there's not really going to be anything really...exciting, in this chapter I don't think. And besides I'm working off of a huge writer's block so this whole thing is completely spontaneous._**

**_I know I should've done this before, but I just want to thank Key2DestNE, bigtimerushbtrforlife, acsgirlie, MaslowLuver, MerrilyWeFallx, and mavk4444 for the reviews!_**

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><p>~Sammie~<p>

Oh, what a fun week! Turns out Logan was right about those government agent people, so yesterday I was cooped upstairs for the whole day. Kendall and James came up a lot to check on me. Logan and Carlos were the newest ones here, save for me, and the agent had apparently seen them many times so they knew how James and Kendall acted and everything. From what they told me Ron hadn't been home all day. He had left a note saying that something came up and he was going to be away for a while. Kathy stayed, so they had "school". The agents deemed it a worthy enough lesson. They left after that.

I sat on my bed, playing with the medical wrapping tape Logan wrapped my wrist in three days ago, when I heard a knock on my door. The knock was followed by Kendall calling my name. I told him he could come in and he gave me a soft smile as he sat on the edge of my bed.

"You ready to go down?" He asked quietly. I shrugged.

"I've got nothin' else to do." I deadpanned. Kendall chuckled lightly and helped me off the bed (Not that I needed it; he, James and Logan have kind of been babying me lately).

Ron wasn't around to take us to the field. Again, he wasn't here today. He left another note saying we'd better get to work if we knew what was best for us. He took Kathy with him.

We only hacked at the same little dirt pile we had accumulated after about and hour of work.

I use my foot now since I can't use my hand for anything.

A chilling wind blew by and we all shivered in unison.

\

"Sam? Sam? Hey, Sammie! Come on, wake up!" Someone said quietly as I was shaken awake. I turned over in my bed and saw two dark figures standing over me. Logan and James, I thought. Staring. Logan was wearing a small smirk and James was biting his bottom lip as he looked between me and the door.

I sat up. "What are you guys doing? It's-" I searched for my phone in my gray and black pajama pants, then groaned when I realized Kathy took my phone away the first day I was here. I looked back up at them. "What time is it?"

Logan tilted his head back and forth, like he was figuring it out only in his head. "About 2:30"

I raised an eyebrow. "In the morning?"

James nodded. "Yup. Now come on, grab a sweatshirt or something. We want to show you something." He tapped Logan's shoulder and gestured towards the door with his head. "Meet us at the top of the stairs."

I eyed him suspiciously, but nodded nontheless. They left the room followed by Kendall walking out of his. He glanced my way and smiled. He wiggled his eyebrows and stuck his tongue at me then continued walking. I chuckled and stood up, pulling out my ponytail in the process. I walked over to the dresser and pulled out a light gray pullover and slipped it on over my cami.

I pulled the sleeves over my hands then stuffed one into the front pocket. I could see the four guys gathered near the stairs. Carlos spotted me and grinned.

"Hey!" He greeted as he walked up to me. "You ready to go?"

I gave a small smile at his eagerness. "Where are we going?"

Carlos smiled again and took my hand and led me down the stairs after the rest of the guys. When we reached the bottom I instinctively looked towards the entrance door. Instead of walking to that door, Carlos pulled me around into the dining room. There were two other doors in there, one leading to the outdoors and the other stuck in the wall. I could only assume that was either a bathroom or a basement.

We filed out of the door into the dark night. I stepped onto the gravel and felt the cold seep into my sock covered feet. I continued to stare at my feet. The dark blue atmosphere causing them to look like they are almost glowing a soft white.

My head snapped up as I heard the creaking of wood. Kendall, James and Logan had walked up onto a wooden porch that led to a pair of double doors. I looked farther up and stopped dead when saw an old white church with the paint slowly peeling off standing tall above my head...

_The air was fine. The wind: Bone-chilling. Walking up to the aging church I had only expected to find what I was looking for. I climbed up the short steps, hearing the wood protest my weight with every step. I noticed some of the paint on the wall was starting to peel. A gust of wind flew through the trees causing them to rustle and shiver... _

"Sam? Sam! Sammie!" Carlos yelled, waving the hand that wasn't still attatched to mine in front of my face. I blinked a couple of times and looked at him.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asked. I saw the rest of the guys staring at me. I glanced back up to large building in front of us.

"What is this?" I questioned softly, not exactly out of my trance yet.

"The Church..." Kendall replied cautiously. "We come here all the time." He and James turned their heads towards the structure then returned to me.

Logan continued to stare at me like he could figure out everything if he just concentrated hard enough.

I looked at the church again. "Can't we go someplace where it's not so...threatening?" I suggested, keeping a monotone voice.

James raised an eyebrow at me. "No? This place isn't threatening!"

I glanced at Logan for confirmation, but he hadn't moved.

James continued. "I mean, sure, the paint is sort of peeling off...And this thing hasn't been used in a long time and it's-"

"James, hang on." Logan interrupted, placing a hand on James' arm, his gaze never leaving me. He walked down the stairs and stopped in front of me. He stared directly in my eyes the whole time.

"...Something happened to you that invovled a church, didn't it, Sammie?" He asked very calmly. It scared me to think how easily he could read me like that.

"How can you tell that?" Carlos questioned.

Logan took a quick glance a Carlos then turned his attention back to me. "You can tell by her eyes. She seems phased. Her physical stature is kind of stiff too, but you can tell that something is definetly wrong by her eyes." He explained and Carlos moved next to Logan and began to stare at me the same way he was.

My gaze switched between the two boys infront of me until I shook my head and broke away from Carlos' grasp. I walked to the small wooden porch when I saw James and Kendall were staring at me too.

"Stop it." I told them, though it didn't sound very menacing. My hand brushed against the railing of the stairs. I jumped and pulled my hand away like the wood had burnt me. "I-I'm fine."

Logan gestured toward the doors with his head. "Touch the doors then." He ordered softly. I raised an eyebrow and looked at the door.

"What? Why would I do that?" I challenged.

"Uh, to go inside?" James answered. "Don't be stupid, Sam. We're going in there whether you like it or not." He scolded with a teasing smile. I rolled my eyes.

"If you were fine then you wouldn't be protesting or questioning it. It wouldn't be a problem like you're making it be." Logan pointed out, giving a small knowing smile.

"I am fine." I insisted.

"So touch the door."

"Fine." I spat. I sighed and slowly made my way up the creaking stairs. I bit my lip as I approached the door. My hand retracted before I actually touched it, but when I did I shivered...

_I shivered as I took a glimpse of the sky darkening with grey clouds. I slipped inside and croaked out a tiny "Hello?" Hearing no response I assumed she was tricking me. "Gramma? Are you in here?" I called again. A man who was standing behind the podium at the front of the many pews turned towards the noise. He gave a sly smile and said: "Ah, Samantha! I was hoping I'd see you today..."_

"Sammie! For God's sake snap out of it!" Carlos yelled as he shook my shoulder. I turned my head to see his face. He seemed genuinely scared for me.

I scoffed. "God hates me."

"Can we go inside? It's freezing out here!" James complained. Kendall nodded and pushed the doors open. Everyone filed inside. When he realized I wasn't following Carlos turned around.

"Come on, Sammie." He said softly.

"...I don't want to. I-I don't like churches." I gazed up at the steeple again, and shuddered.

Carlos smiled softly. "It's not bad. This one is different than whatever one you had." He stepped in farther and spread out his barely visible arms. "See? Nothing bad can happen in here."

Suddenly a dark shadow came and clutched Carlos. They dragged him off to some random part of the church.

I screamed.

A hand flew over my mouth and an arm wrapped around my waist. I struggled to get free but they kept hold on me.

"Sh sh sh sh, Sammie. It's just Kendall, okay? Kendall took him. Carlos is fine. We're sorry, okay? You have to keep quiet." A soft, velvet voice rang through my ear. I turned around in their arms and saw James smiling at me.

"You bastard! You freaking scared the living hell out of me!" I shouted at him. He started to laugh. Anger boiled in my veins and I pushed him over the railing of the porch. He landed with an "Oof!" He only fell like two feet but it satisfied me to get a bit of revenge on him. I was about to storm into the church when I remembered where I was entering and stopped immediately. I crossed my arms over my chest. "Now I'm _really_ not going in there!" I declared.

A couple lights went off on the walls. Carlos stumbled into view. He looked behind him and I heard Kendall laughing. Carlos pushed Kendall's face and he fell backwards, hearing him groan in pain in the new soft light. Carlos walked up to me shaking his head in exasperation.

"Sorry." He muttered. He stuck his hand out infront of me. "Besides _them, _nothing is going to hurt you here."

I stared at his hand. I wanted to go in there. A part of me was cold and it was probably warmer in there. The other part said there's nothing different about this church and not to trust a thing of what they said.

"Go in or we'll make you." James threatened from behind. I jumped slightly and turned around to face him.

"How could you possibly make me go in that creeper house?" I challenged. A sly smile creeped upon James' face. He bent down and lifted me over his shoulder.

"What? What the-? James put me down!" I yelled, trying to break free. He walked into the church, slightly chuckling at my protests. He walked over to one of the empty pews and set me down, my head hitting the wood as I came down...

_"W-w-what are you d-doing?" I asked, trembling. A dark laugh filled the room and I shook as I laid in the empty pew. His face was getting closer, and closer, and closer. "It's simple. This will be very quick as long as you keep quiet."_

_"No...No, no I don't want to. Leave me alone, please!" I whimpered. He chuckled lightly at my protests. His cold hands slipped down my arms. I shivered again._

_"No, stop! Don't! Stop it, please!" I begged, tears streaming down my face._

"Stop! Stop it please! Stop!" I screamed, my hands covering my face. Tears were spilling over at the memory.

"Sam, you're alright. We're not doing anything to you." Logan shushed softly.

"James, get back over here." Kendall called.

I slowly pulled my hands away, seeing Carlos, Logan and Kendall above me. Kendall was looking somewhere else while Carlos and Logan stared at me fearfully.

I sat up instantly and wiped my eyes. James was standing against the opposite wall. It seemed as though he was trying to be sucked up by it if he could. I looked behind me, though there was really no point, and sniffled. I turned back around and noticed Carlos and Logan hadn't moved an inch. Kendall was staring at me now as well.

"Sammie, what happened to you?" Carlos asked, scared.

I ignored him. "Why is James over there?" I asked, looking up at Kendall.

"Sam," Logan warned. I shifted my eyes towards him. "Stop avoiding it. Tell us what happened."

"But...James is-"

"Forget about James, Sammie! He's fine! You just scared him." Logan explained, looking stern.

_I _scared _him? _Ha, never thought that'd happen.

"Can you please tell us what happened, Sammie? You might feel better if you talked about it." Carlos offered, smiling slightly.

Kendall swung over and sat on the top of the backrest. "It's okay, Sam. You can tell us anything." He rested his hand on my shoulder and rubbed it lightly. I jumped and squeezed my eyes tight.

"Kendall, let go of her." Logan ordered. Kendall's hand slipped off my shoulder and folded it in his other hand and settled them in his lap.

"What happened, Sam?"

I bit my lip. I stared at my hands and sighed...

_The air was fine. The wind: Bone-chilling. Walking up to the aging church I had only expected to find what I was looking for. It was only a simple game of hide and seek, and I was determined to win. I climbed up the short steps, hearing the wood protest my weight with every step. I noticed some of the paint on the wall was starting to peel. A gust of wind flew through the trees causing them to rustle and shiver._

_I shivered the same way as I took a glimpse of the sky darkening with grey clouds. I slipped inside and croaked out a tiny "Hello?" Hearing no response I assumed she was tricking me. "Gramma? Are you in here?" I called again. A man who was standing behind the podium at the front of the many pews turned towards the noise. He gave a sly smile and said: "Ah, Samantha! I was hoping I'd see you today..."_

_"Hi, Mr. Pastor, Sir." I greeted. I didn't know what his name was, I never did pay attention much in church. My 13-year-old mind wandering to other places. More exciting and colorful places would always fill my imagination as I dreamt of visiting a more interesting place than the one I lived in then._

_He chuckled. "Please, Samantha. Call me Will." He slowly was walking down the aisle towards me._

_I looked about the church, thinking my grandmother could pop out at any minute. "Have you seen my gramma, Mr. Pastor?"_

_He tilted his head from side to side, deciding whether to tell me or not. "Actually," He said. "I'd prefer you call me Father...maybe even Daddy." He said huskily, grinning at me._

_"I already have a daddy." I told him. I don't think I would like this guy as my dad. He was old. He was like, 25 or somethin'. I'm pretty sure this guy was already married and his wife was having a baby soon anyway._

_He laughed again. He picked me up and sat me in one of the pews. He sat next to me. "I like it though, it really turns me on."_

_Being 13 didn't help too much with the situation, therefore I wasn't too familiar with "terms" yet._

_My automatic thought was: What, does he have a light bulb in him or something? Does he have an idea?_

"You are such a cute 13-year-old." Carlos chimed in, giggling to himself.

I chuckled a bit and blushed lightly.

"What happened next?" James pressed. He had moved from the wall to sitting on the arm of the pew.

_"Um, I really have to go find my gramma now." I excused myself, trying to hop of the bench. A large hand grabbed my arm. I looked up at him. His eyes looked almost black in the decreasing amount of daylight._

_"I'm sure she won't mind if you're a little busy." He said lowly. He began to push my body down on the pew, my head hitting the wood in the process._

_"W-w-what are you d-doing?" I asked, trembling. A dark laugh filled the room and I shook as I laid in the empty pew. His face was getting closer, and closer, and closer. "It's simple. This will be very quick as long as you keep quiet."_

_"No...No, no I don't want to. Leave me alone, please!" I whimpered. He chuckled lightly at my protests. His cold hands slipped down my arms. I shivered again._

_"No, stop! Don't! Stop it, please!" I begged, tears starting to stream down my face._

_Then I felt lips. Cold, hard lips against my small ones. Lips against my neck and now bare shoulders. I tried to push away but I couldn't do anything against this huge man above me. I only hoped my gramma would appear at any moment to explain how this was a huge, cruel joke. I could take it. I was a big girl._

_"Please, leave me alone..." _

_I can take it. I'm a big girl..._

The four boys infront of me stared at me with wide eyes.

"Did...did he really...?" Carlos hesitantly asked. He tried to make a gesture of some sort, obviously failing.

I nodded shakily. "Y-yeah. Yeah, he did. I didn't understand it until a few months after, but I never went to church again after that. I refused to go. I was too afraid of the whole thing."

Kendall made a face. "Oh, that's unholy."

Logan slapped him as the rest of us chuckled at his pun. "Kendall, have some sympathy and class, please."

Kendall smirked at him. "Light up, Logie."

"You're lucky I don't sick that guy on you, too!"

"No, it's okay, Logan. It was funny." I defended him, wiping the tears from my eyes again. Kendall smiled at me gratefully. Logan rolled his eyes.

"You don't have to tell us the rest, Sam. It's okay." Carlos stated. He scooted a bit closer to me. "Do you feel better now that you've talked about it?" He smiled.

I giggled. "No," I uttered plainly. His face fell. "This place still creeps me out. And what James and Kendall did didn't help any." I glared at James, he chuckled and held his head down.

"I'm sorry, Sammie. I didn't know." He mumbled, lifting his head a little to look at me and give a playful smile.

I smiled back. "I know. I've never told anyone before so I didn't expect you to."

Carlos raised his eyebrows. "Not even your parents?"

I shook my head. "Nope, not my parents, not my friends, not anyone."

James' eyebrows knitted together in anger. "Then you let that bastard get away!" He got off of the pew and stood. "He _raped _you, Sam! He should be put behind bars! Bars like we're stuck behind!" He turned around and kicked the opposite pew in frustration.

"Society classifies him as a rapist, we classify him as a sensitive teddy bear with a few emotional problems." Kendall whispered in my ear. I giggled. "To others, this would either be ironic or very confusing. To us, we know he hates rapists and it kills him to be called one."

I watched Carlos and Logan walk up to James and talk to him.

"What exactly happened to James?" I asked. Kendall sighed and gestured for me to move so he could sit next to me. I pulled my legs up to my chest and he sat down. He shifted himself so he could face me.

"Okay, so a few years ago James had this crush on a girl. She was very pretty, very nice. She had blonde hair, she was skinny, she was basically every guy's dreamgirl. Now, James' parents were very classy. His mom owned a cosmetics business, so they had a lot of money and were very proud of themselves. That's where James gets his ego sometimes." He whispered the last part, I smiled in amusement. "It's pretty much gone now, though. Anyway, that girl asked him out and he was like, way beyond excited. They dated for like four months until James' parents started going into debt. James went to a very high class, preppy school for snobs. People began to talk about him and his family's problems. They started to make fun of the girl he dated for being with James because his parents were going bankrupt. Over the course of the five months they were together, James had believed that he had fallen completely in love with this girl."

"So this chick couldn't take it anymore and went nuts?" I guessed. I heard the wind screech through the windows and I tried to swallow a huge lump that had immediately formed in my throat. Kendall rested his hand on mine. I looked up at him.

"Hey, you're okay." He assured me. His smiled was soft and caring, and I smiled back.

"W-what happened after that?" I asked, trying to change my focus.

"Oh, um..." Kendall shifted himself and cleared his throat. "She uh...This girl was like one of the most popular girls there and she was all prissy and perfect and everything. So naturally she would flip out if something happened to her reputation."

"Right, okay."

"So, um...One night, James was over at the girl's house. They were having a make-out session when it got pretty intense. James said they had talked about it before and they were both ready to...you know, go for it."

"Um...okay." I responded, both of us sort of awkward to be talking about this.

"Then, uh, when they started taking eachother's clothes off, she started screaming. Like, bloody murder screaming. He was really confused and she was shouting stuff like 'help help he's hurting me! Rape, rape!' And her father came upstairs and found them. Her dad almost killed James he beat the crap out of him so bad. And, her dad never really liked James anyway."

I nodded. "So this girl only dated James for the reputation?"

"That and money."

"Money?"

"Since this was a huge preppy school and other stuff, all the kids that went there were rich. Usually you were popular by how pretty you were and/or how much money your parents had. James was up in that region, and when the money went down, so did her interest in James. This also includes the reputation stuff too."

"Wow." I sat there expressionless. How could someone be so heartless and only want someone for their class status and money?

Oh yeah. A lot of people!

"What was her name?" I asked.

"Samantha." He replied. My eyes widened as I silently went "Ohhhh".

"So _that's _why he hates me! More or less now." I exclaimed.

"Yeah, but she hated that name." He said flatly.

Oh! Well!

"So she changed it to Mercedes. She got more attention because her name was more unique than 'Samantha' was."

I rolled my eyes. No wonder the guys fawned over her.

I looked around the dimly lit church and shivered.

"So, um...Why do we come here? And in the middle of the night?" I wondered aloud.

Kendall chuckled. "Let me put it how Logan explains it." He cleared his throat, sat up straighter, and messed up his hair to look more spiked in the front. "In order to obtain freedom and maintain sanity we come here whenever we feel overwhelmed or need some time to ourselves. We do this because no one treks to this old and abandoned church so no one would think to look here. Here we are away from the eyes of Ron, Kathy, and the government. Logic logic logic smart smart smart Kindle Kindle Kindle."

I laughed. "That barely sounded like Logan."

"The 'Kindle' part did." He noted, winking at me.

I laughed harder. "Yes, _that _part sounded like Logan!"

"What?" We heard. Logan had turned around at the mention of his name.

"Nothing, nothing!" I insisted, trying to supress my laughter.

"Hey, Logan, why do we come here? Explain it to Sammie." Kendall called. Logan groaned.

"In order to obtain freedom and maintain our sanity we come here whenever we feel like we need to break away from it all. We do this because no one would wander to or even acknowledge this old and abandoned church so no one would think to look here. Here we are away from the eyes of Ron, Kathy, and the government."

Kendall turned back to me wearing a proud smile. "I was pretty close wasn't I?"

"He didn't say your name, though." I pointed out. Kendall twisted back around.

"Hey, Logan!"

"What?"

"...I love you!"

Logan gave him the strangest look then shook his head. "Shut up, Kendall."

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><p><em><strong>Heheh. So this came out a LOT better than I had anticipated and is so far my favorite chapter. The next chapter is a major turning point so I'll try to update as soon as I can. ;) Thanks for reading and please review! :D<strong>_


	6. Chapter 6

**_Welp_****_,__ here's a short chapter. I'm really excited for this one though because it's a HUGE turning point! We're finally getting into the plot of the story! But I HATE it cuz it's short . Like, seriously, this thing isn't even 3,000 words. And I'm SO sorry! I'm 99% sure this will be the only chapter this short...maybe. It kind of sucks too because t's mostly dialogue, but that's basically what this story consists of anyways._**

**_Thank you to all who reviewed/alerted/favorited/whatever! And Thank you to the people who stick with this story after these really long periods of time inbetween them!_**

**_Hope you guys like it ;) and I'm REALLY sorry it's short :P_**

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><p>You know those days where it feels like nothing seems to be in its place?<p>

Yup, that's what it's like today.

It's been three days since the night of the church, still no sign of Kathy. Ron has been popping in an outevery once in a while throughout the last three days. Every time he was either was in a really good mood, or a really bad mood.

Both are scary in their own way.

Right now he was trying to give us an english lesson. Logan kept speaking up that this was how we were doing things and that it'd be easier for us if he tried to do it the way Kathy did. The last time he spoke up he was slapped across his already bruised face. He didn't talk for the rest of the lesson.

All of us had been "punished" within the last few days just because he didn't have anything else to do. Although, after he had beaten one of us he'd go out and leave us alone until late at night. Just knowing the beast was gone wasn't enough to pull out the fear of the jail we were in. None of us even wanted to take a step outside in fear that Ron would come back and do worse things than he had ever done before.

Ron said he was going out again an if he finds anything out of place or that we did somethin he didn't like (which was impossible _not _to) then there will be punishments. We all nodded shakily and he left with the door slamming behind him.

"It's like we're dogs." I commented as soon as he left.

"Shut up!" Logan scolded. "He could've bugged the place by now! We have to be careful of what we say!"

Kendall scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Stop being so pessimistic and paranoid. I'm sure if he had bugged the place we'd probably be dead."

"Well obviously he can't _kill _us! If he did then he'd be in jail for the rest of his beady, disgusting little life. And who knows what would happen to Kathy, then."

Carlos spoke up. "Where_ is _Kathy? She hasn't been here for almost a week."

Logan shrugged. "I'm afraid to even ask."

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><p>November days continue to get shorter and shorter, it's been a only been a couple days, though. It has felt so much longer. Kathy still hasn't returned, and it's worrying the crap out of us. How can she just leave for a week and a half without notifying anyone? When she was here with us it was so much easier, and less painful.<p>

It snowed the other day for the first time this season. We couldn't work on the field anymore (even though all we were doing was just digging up dirt). That meant it was time for Ron to show Logan, Carlos and I how to take care of the animals.

I had no idea there were any other organisms considered as animals here besides us.

We almost do nothing related to the animals at all. We basically just have to haul giant stacks of hay from one side of the barn to the other. If we finish that early only then would we take care of te animals. Carlos was very disappointed by this. He has come out a lot more since I first met him. He's more out going and innocent and fun-loving and optimistic. That's one of the things the rest of us have been lacking: Optimism. All we have to look forward to in a normal day is hard labor and beatings, some more than others. Anyway, at first Carlos was really excited about seeing the animals. He tried to pet one when we were being instructed on how to do things, but he was pushed away by Ron almost landing into some very undesireable things.

Ron led us to the barn where all the hay was. James and Kendall were already in there working. They wore big coats, beanies, and gloves to protect themselves from the cold morning. Logan and Carlos each wore a simple wool hat, I wasn't. Logan and I had gloves, Carlos did not. Should've though like the smart one.

"At twelve you can take a short five minute break." Ron explained. You could hear the annoyance rising in his voice. "During that time, I will be back. Half of these better be on the other side. I don't think I need to explain any more." He turned on his heel and began to walk away.

"Oh, wait!" I called. "What if you're allergic to hay?"

He turned his head toward us. "It's almost winter, I don't think you'll have any problems." He walked away towards the way we came, and we were alone...again.

"Well!"

"Are you seriously allergic to hay?" Logan asked.

"...No."

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><p>"Logan!"<p>

"Mm?"

"Logan, get up!"

"Sam, now is really not the time to be doing this." He mumbled into his pillow.

I crossed my arms. "Oh, so it's okay when you guys wake me up in the middle of the night, but when I do it it's a no-no?"

Logan raised himself a little. "What? No, just..." Ha gave an exasperated sigh. "What is it, Sammie? It's 1:18 in the morning."

"Let's go to the Church again!" I suggested excitedly.

Logan sighed again. "I don't know, Sam. Today's been weird and hard. I don't want to risk anything."

"Risk anything?" I questioned with a raise of my eyebrow. "What would we be risking? Rob isn't here...I don't think...And Kathy hasn't been here for this entire week. No one would catch us!"

He stared at me. His face remained unchanged.

I rolled my eyes. "Or does the all-knowing brain of Logan think we'd still be caught by nothing?"

Logan shot me a glare. "I thought you were scared by the Church."

"Oh, I was!" Logan didn't look too convinced. "Okay, it still creeps me out...but don't you think it'd be better for me to overcome it by going there more often? Or would you rather me try to avoid it at all costs and have me get better that way?"

Logan sighed, defeated. "Fine, but only for a little while. Go wake the others up."

"Oh Carlos is already up! Actually we were going to go anyway if you had given us a definite no, heh." I admitted with an awkward smile. He gave me an 'are you serious?' look, but shook it off and got out of his bed.

"Whatever. Go get Kendall and James, then."

I smiled. Logan pushed me out of his room and quickly shut the door behind him. I became skeptical to whether or not he would actually come, but pushed the thought away and made my way to James' room. I entered after I knocked a few times but recieved no answer. James was sound asleep in his bed. I almost didn't want to disturb him.

But this was a golden oppurtunity. I had no choice but to give in.

I walked up to his bed and gave a little chuckle. Poor little Jamie, he's just sleeping peacefully in his comfy little bed.

Well, at least he _was _sleeping peacefully.

Suddenly I ripped the blankets off of him and shoved him off his bed. He landed with a loud thud and a slight squeal. I immediately felt an overwhelming sense of pride for myself. Take that, James...

He popped up from behind his bed with a scowl on his face. "What the hell, Sam?"

"Karma, basically. Now, come on. We're all going to the Church again." I explained. He stood up, and readjusted his pale blue wife-beater.

"Alright, I guess I'll go. But if you ever do that again I will be damned if you ever get away with it."

I shrugged. "Fair enough. Meet outside Carlos' room."

* * *

><p>"Guys, I think we should go back."<p>

We all groaned at Logan's comment. "How many times is that now?" James asked.

"About sixteen." Kendall answered, swinging his arm around Logan's shoulder. He steered him away from the door and we began walking to the Church.

"But guys!" Logan protested. "I really have a bad feeling about this! Don't any of you think that this could turn out _really_ badly?"

"Logan," Kendall sighed. "How many times have we gone there? Way too many times to count. And I think-"

"W-wait, Kendall." Carlos interrupted. We all stopped and turned towards our Latino friend. "Maybe Logan's right. What if something does happen?"

James groaned. "Don't tell me you're backing out on this too! Seriously, what could happen? It's not like we're going to get kidnapped or anything. We've done this many times before. And look! We're still alive! And we're going to do it _again_!"

Logan narrowed his eyes at James. "Don't be a smartass, James."

"Why should'nt I? Sammie's a smartass all the time! So are you, sometimes, Logan! Now come _on, _guys! Before anything bad actually happens."

"You hypocrite..." Kendall snickered.

James turned to him, eyebrows raised. "How am I a hypocrite, Kendall?"

"You're criticizing Logan and Carlos for being scared when you appear to have that same feeling as well." Kendall grinned, knowing he was right.

James glared at Kendall, and turned back around. He began to walk towards the Church, pulling me along with him.

"Why am I being the one dragged along by you?" I asked, a cold breeze passing by. I pulled my hair back, stuffing it in the hood as I pulled it over my head.

James glanced at me, then turned his attention back to our destination. "Because you're the only one that's not pissing me off...for once."

"Oh...well, thank you? But you know you can't get mad at them so easily."

"I just hate how Kendall can just read through you and take it as a joke almost all the time."

"What about Logan and Carlos?" I asked.

James sighed. "Logan is just a smartass, like we established earlier. And Carlos...I don't know. He just chickened out and sided with Logan."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "There's nothing wrong with being scared, James." When he rolled his eyes I shook my arm out of his grasp. He glanced at me and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Even if there's nothing to be scared of, it's okay to be afraid of something."

"I'm not scared." He said flatly.

"I never said you were!"

By that time we had come to the front doors of the Church. James held the door open while the rest of us filed in. He shut the door after the last person entered, enveloping us in pitch blackness. But as soon as he did...the atmosphere changed. Suddenly, not any one of us wanted to be there.

"...Do you guys smell that?" Logan asked after a few moments of just standing in the darkness.

"Um...kinda. What is that?" Kendall wondered aloud.

"I...am not sure, actually. It's faintly familiar but...I don't know."

"Well turn on the lights and find out! And hurry!" Carlos yelled worriedly.

"...Are you afraid of the dark, Carlos?" James asked. You could definetly hear the humor in his voice.

It took a while for Carlos to answer that question. "That's stupid. I just don't like being in here, suddenly."

I rolled my eyes slightly. Sure, I was still freaked out by the fact that we were in a church and I was aware of the sudden mood change, but that doesn't mean something would happen.

"Come on, Carlos." I half-whined. "We're fine. Nothing has happened to any of us while we were in here."

"You had a breakdown last time." He pointed out.

"And we should never talk about that again. My point is no one comes here anymore. It's been abandoned for a long, long while. Now Logan will go turn on the lights and we can go up front and relax. Okay?"

"...Okay." He gave in with a sigh. I smiled and began to walk up the aisle. I hear Logan shuffling along the wall trying to find the lanterns we had last time. Last time I asked him why we didn't just turn on the ceiling lights he told me it was because if we did that then we would draw too much attention. If they should find us we'd be dead by now for sure.

"Uhh, guys? I can't find the lights."

Kendall groaned and went over to help him.

The closer we got to the front of the Church, the stronger the smell became. It smelled kind of metallic but something else was there, too. Almost like something was decaying.

"Hey, guys?" I started. "Did one of you leave food in here or something?"

It was about three seconds before everyone said no, they didn't. They barely knew where to find food! Ron always changed where everything was for some reason. This onviously led me to believe he just enjoyed watching us get frustrated ant almost have to beg him for something to eat.

"Ugh! Where is that stupid thing?"

When I reached the front pew, the smell was overwhelming. I had never smelled something so...so_ ugly._ I know, you can't really smell ugly. But this thing did NOT smell pretty! I walked up the two steps in front of me when I bumped into something. It was soft and apparently hanging from the ceiling.

"Oh my God! What is _in _here?" I heard James complain. I focused on the thing infront of me. Steadying it with my hands. I felt kind of gross while touching it, like it wasn't normal. So i dropped my hands and stared at whatever was infront of me.

"Something's definetly in here, guys." I muttered lowly.

"Here it is! Found the light, finally!" Kendall announced with annoyed pride. He clicked it on and the whole room went into a soft light. I looked up an gasped loudly as I saw what–or rather _who–_was hanging from the ceiling.

Kathy.


	7. Chapter 7

**_Wow, fast update! Look at me go! Okay so for the last chapter I got so many review alerts and favorite story alerts all at one time and I was so happy and excited I almost started crying (It was only 8, but hey, I'm a starving artist)! And I'm not one to cry a lot! So thank you guys so much for reading this and actually sticking with it with the large periods of times inbetween. I'm real sorry for that, by the way. It'll be easier once school and finals are over in like...1 week. Yayy summer! But okay, let's move on._**

**_Thank you to all those people again! Seriously, I love you guys, that was insane._**

**_Same disclaimer as always. I don't own the boys of Big Time Rush._**

* * *

><p>Screams.<p>

Screams were all I heard in the two minutes that followed Kendall turning on the light.

I must say, though, Kendall is the only one that doesn't have a high pitched scream.

Basically everything turned to chaos, it seemed. I only stood there in shock staring at Kathy's lifeless body hanging from the ceiling. She had two deep gashes on her wrists where it looked as if blood was still leaking out. Other cuts on her arms accompanied the gashes, but they definetly weren't as deep. What probably fascinated yet disgusted me the most was her head. Obviously her neck was broken, it drooped at an awkward angle. The only thing that was still holding her up was the head itself. Her eyes were opened halfway and a trail of blood coming from the corner of her mouth. I could see James and Carlos holding on to eachother out of the corner of my eye. I wasn't sure what Kendall and Logan were doing since they were behind me. But the only thing I could focus on was that I found a new reason to hate churches.

"Holy...that isn't...?" Kendall asked over James and Carlos' screams.

"Kathy...yeah." I whispered.

"Oh my God...this isn't even-Guys! Stop!" Kendall yelled at the two. Their voices died down, but they didn't let go of eachother. Logan walked over with wide eyes and an open mouth.

"Wow... It's really her, isn't it?" He said, standing closer to the body. "My Lord, you can barely tell it _is_ her." James and Carlos let go of eachother then. They came to where Logan, Kendall and I were standing. James moved and was next to me. "Look at all the blood on the floor!"

James and I looked under what was Kathy only to see a half-dried pool of blood on the floor. We jumped away in disgust.

"...Ow, Sam. Let go." I heard James whine. I noticed that I had a death grip on his arm. I let go and muttered an apology.

"Logan," Carlos called. "What happened?"

Logan shrugged. "I'm really not sure. This is surreal." He moved to touch the body to examine it more when Kendall slapped his arm.

"Don't touch it! Are you insane?"

My eyes were as round as saucers at that point. I slowly looked down at my hands as my heart started to beat faster.

"Oh, GOD! I touched her!" I yelled. Everyone except James made an "ewww" sound. James looked at his arm and screamed.

"Aw, man! And you touched me!"

We both started screaming while trying to wipe our hads and arms off on something, _anything. _It was like I reached into her nonexistent soul. I had deeply hoped there was no blood on my hands or I might have to puke.

"Guys! Will you shut up?" Logan scolded. "We can still get caught, you know."

I swallowed. "Logan? I take it all back. You were right. You were so right and I'm sorry."

Logan stared up at the body and shrugged. "Don't be. We would've discovered this eventually."

"I can barely stand to look at this. I think I'm gonna be sick." James complained. I took a small step away from James and looked to Logan again.

Logan made a face of disgust. "Please don't." He looked around. His eyes fell on one of the first pews. Kendall looked to the same place and raised an eyebrow.

"What's that?"

Logan stepped down to pick it up. It was just a folded up piece of paper. Gently he unfolded it and skimmed it. "It's a suicide note."

Carlos looked over Logan's shoulder. "What's it say?" He asked.

" _'Dear whoever finds this, I'm sorry you had to find me like this. I couldn't take it anymore. If this is Ron reading this, know that I love you and you are the most wonderful husband a woman could ever have. I'd like you to have my father's company. I know I can trust you with it-'_ "

"Woah, woah, woah. Wait a second. What company?" Kendall questioned. Logan just shrugged.

"I don't know. I have never heard her talk about it before."

"Keep reading. What else does it say?" James asked.

"_ 'I know I can trust you with it and steer it in a good direction.'_ She spelled 'steer' and 'direction' wrong..."

"Logan!" Kendall and James scolded. "Just read the paper! We don't need to revise everything."

"But-"

"Just do it, Logan, please." I said tiredly. Logan sighed and continued reading.

"_ 'And if you can, sell the house. We really don't need it anymore. I'm so sorry you have to do everything else without me. Make some plan with the government or something...'_ " Logan made a face at the letter but didn't say anything. "_ 'As long as you leave this place forever that is fine with me. Do something good with yourself. Now, the reason I am killing myself is the reason why I wanted to start this whole adoption juvenile thing. The kids. The kids are horrible and drove me to do this. They are disrespectful and I have found no way to change their lives for the better. I have never met anyone as evil as those five-' _"

"Bullshit!" James snapped. "_We_ drove _her_ to suicide? If anything it should be _us_ committing suicide! She and Ron have been the worst people to stay with! She should speak for herself! I'd rather die than come here again. I'm slowly going insane because of it all and it's because of her!"

"James-" I tried.

"Shut up! Don't tell me to calm down or anything, don't you dare! We are standing next to a freaking dead body that _you touched_, by the way! And she's blaming us for everything!"

"I realize that, James. And it's not fair. Obviously something doesn't match up! But we can't just lash out on something automatically. Maybe we did cause her to take her own life, maybe not. We can deal with it later, but if you're not quiet now someone is going to find us!"

The front door suddenly started shaking. All of our heads snapped towards the noise. I was too paralyzed with sudden fear to even think about moving. But no one else was moving either.

Kendall swallowed loudly. "Guys. Guys guys guys!"

"Turn off the lights! Quick!" Logan ordered in a panic. James turned around and quickly grabbed all the lanterns. I swallowed and watched the door, which was still shaking. There were a few pounds on the door.

"Sam!" I heard someone say. Some one was pulling on my sleeve, too. I didn't dare look away from the door.

"Sammie! Come on!" I stumbled as they pulled harder on my sleeve. Carlos was tugging me to a closet at the front of the door. More pounds echoed through the church as everyone scrambled around.

"In here, guys!" Carlos called. He opened the door and threw me in. I hit the wall and swallowed thickly. James and Logan ran in with the lanterns, Logan quickly shutting off his. Kendall swung around with the door and shut it just as we heard the other doors open. Logan slapped James and harshly whispered to him to turn off the lantern. He did and the small closet was dark instantly. Kendall slowly opened the door a crack and looked out.

"Kendall!" I whispered. "What are you doing?"

"Shhh! I wanna see who's out there." He resumed looking back out while all of us crowded around to do the same. We could see a beam of like searching the place, like it was making sure it was secure. Someone walked through the aisle, and Kendall closed the door a bit more. They walked over to Kathy's body, shining the light on it. Someone (I'm assuming James) made a gagging sound. It was in a much better light and it was even worse than we thought. You could see the blood much clearer and it had turned into a very dark red.

We saw the shadow walking around the body a few times. It almost seemed like he knew someone else had been in there.

"Guys, we have to get out-...!" I sneezed, and it slightly echoed through the room. The door shut and I was slammed against the wall with James' hand over my mouth.

"Are you freaking insane? Do you _want_ us to get killed?" He hissed through his teeth. I squeezed my eyes tight.

"Slamming her against the wall isn't going to make us any quieter, James!" Kendall yelled. Logan whacked Kendall.

"Well they probably know we're here now so let's get out of here!" Logan ordered.

Kendall opened the door and peeked out. Not two seconds later he shut the door and pressed his back to it.

"We have to get out of here and fast! ...I think he knows someone's in here." Kendall calmly stated.

"Not like I just said that or anything..." Logan grumbled.

"Um, James..." I mumbled through his hand. He turned to look at me and quickly stepped away.

"Sorry..." He muttered.

"Guys," Carlos whispered. "Are we trapped?"

"No, Carlitos, we're not trapped. Not yet..." Kendall assured him. He peeked out the door again and shut it quick. "Okay, we're going to go out there two at a time. I'll go last so I'll be alone."

"But Kendall, what if you get caught? What if any of us get caught?" I asked.

Kendall shook his head gently. "I'm not sure. You're going to have to trust me. Now, you have to stay as low as you can. You have to stay completely silent, too. We don't know who this is, or what they're capable of, and I'm wasting time trying to explain all of this. Carlos and Sam go first."

"What?" I asked in desbelief. "I'm not going out there first!"

"Do you have a better idea?" He challenged. I sighed, defeated, and stepped towards the door with Carlos. "Now you have to stay low. If he sees you, run. I don't care where, just run. We'll find you. But be as quiet as you can and go out the front door. Once you're out, run to the house. Go in the back door, and head up to your rooms. Don't stop for anything just get in your bed and act like you're sleeping. Okay? Got it?" He instructed. Carlos and I nodded shakily.

"I think so..." Carlos murmured. Kendall nodded once and opened the door just enough to let us through.

"Okay, go as quickly and quietly as you can."

"But Kendall-"

"Just go!" He ordered. Carlos slipped through first and I followed. We were maybe twenty feet from the door and I could see the stranger's flashlight searching the area. Carlos and I squatted behind the pews and moved as quietly as we could. The light slowly came closer to us and I panicked. I grabbed Carlos' shirt and pulled him down. We laid there as the light hovered over us for a couple seconds. When it finally moved away I let out a sigh of relief. I gently tapped the bottom of Carlos' shoe to get him going again. We crawled for a few more feet and I could feel my heart pounding. We had no idea who was in here and more importantly, why did he not freak out at the body hanging from the ceiling tht was covered in blood and, oh yeah, dead too? I suspected this person to know about this already. And for some reason, they didn't want anyone else knowing about it. How else would you explain his non-reaction to it? I know if that was me, I would have screamed my face off.

Oh yeah. I did.

We were only a few feet from the door now. I swear my heart was about to beat right out of my chest. Carlos stood up a little to grab the door.

"HEY!"

I think my heart just stopped.

I shut my eyes and waited for the light. I tried to say as quiet as I could. I finally opened my eyes, but when I did, they weren't shining the light on Carlos and I. It was pointed to the adjacent wall on our right. The wall the closet was on.

James.

James stood there like a deer in headlights. He was frozen. You could see the person walking towards James, almost in an angry manner rather than a concerened one. My heart started up again and thumping harder than ever before. I became frozen as well. And I feared the worst.

The figure continued to advance towards James, and I swallowed hard. I felt so scared for him and feared I was about to never see James again.

"Go! Run!" Kendall yelled as he pushed James out of the way. Suddenly Logan was by my side pushing me out the door.

Carlos was already ahead of us. I stumbled out as Logan continued to push me.

"Wait! Kendall! James! We have to go back! We can't just leave them there!" I shouted deperately.

"They'll be fine! Run, Sam!"

I forced my legs to go into a dead sprint. The adrenaline pumped through my veins. I had never been so terrified. It was almost like a game of cops and robbers, but this was the real thing. You didn't know what would happen if you got caught. In this case, one of us could end up like Kathy.

Kendall could end up like Kathy.

_James_ could end up like Kathy.

The thought of that wanted me to run back and save them. I was only a few feet from the house now. I turned to run back but Logan grabbed me before I took another step.

"Sam, what are you doing? Are you insane?" He yelled.

"We can't just leave Kendall and James back there! They could die!"

"They'll be fine! They can take care of themselves! Don't worry about them!" He repeated, though it sounded like he was trying to convince himself rather than trying to convince me. "We have to go back in the house!"

He tugged my body towards the house, despite my protests. Eventually he slammed a hand over mouth.

"Sammie! If you don't shut up he's gonna find us! Do you _want_ us to get killed?"

Remembering James said that to me not twenty minutes ago only made me thrash more.

"Sam, it's gonna be okay! We'll see them again! We have to get in there!" Logan ordered. He opened the back door an pulled me in. He let me go and locked the back door. I brushed some of my hair out of myself when I felt something wet. I was crying and apparently I wasn't done. I wiped my eyes furiously as Logan turned around. We stared at eachother for a moment before lunging at eachother in a hug. We held eachother tight, and I felt Logan was shaking.

"What the _hell _just happened?" He murmured into my shoulder. I pulled away and stared at his eyes. He wasn't crying but you could definetly tell he was scared beyond belief.

"Hey," I soothed. "It's okay, now. We're safe...I think. We'll figure it out. You're a genius. We'll get through it."

Logan nodded, attempting to smile but failing. He swallowed hard and nudged me forward. "We're not safe yet. We have to get upstairs. Get in bed, and act like nothing happened. You didn't hear or see anything, alright? This stays between the five of us."

"Or three of us." I muttered.

"Don't talk like that. They're coming back. It'll be better in the morning."

I nodded slowly, understanding. We headed up the stairs and quietly walked through the hall. I heard oter footsteps and I instantly froze, again.

"Do you hear that?" I whispered. Logan nodded, also frozen.

The footsteps stopped for a moment and a door squeaked open. Carlos' head peeked through and smiled in relief.

"Guys!" He squealed. He jumped out of his room and started running towards us.

"Oh my God, Carlos." I breathed as he almost tackled me in a hug. I hugged him as tight as I did Logan. He let go and hugged Logan just as forcefully.

"I'm so glad you guys are safe! Are you okay?" He asked once he released Logan. We both nodded shakily.

"Physically, yes. But emotionally we are so screwed up." Logan informed him.

"I have never been so terrified in my life." I admitted. Carlos gave a little chuckle.

"Me either. What a rush, but not the good kind."

Logan placed a hand on my shoulder. "I'm glad we're all okay. We have to get to bed before anyone finds us."

Carlos and I nodded. We began to walk to our bedrooms when Carlos said something.

"Wait, where are James and Kendall?" He asked. My stomach dropped at the thought of what might have happened.

"...We don't know." Logan admitted. "I'm not sure if they even followed us out of the Church."

Carlos' eyes became wide with concern. "Are they okay? Do you know?"

Logan and I slowly shook our heads back and forth.

"Well we have to go back and look for them! They could be dying!"

"See?" I turned to Logan. "We should have! They're your _friends, _Logan!"

"And they can look out for themselves! If not, eachother. Trust me, you guys. They'll be just fine." Logan persuaded. He looked hesitant.

"...You don't seem too sure of yourself." I commented.

"I'm worried too, okay? But I don't want to risk losing two more friends by going back there!"

"...If it meant getting the rest of us back together again, I'd take that risk." Carlos said. I nodded.

"Me too. You guys are some of the best friends I've ever had in this past month."

"I would do anything for you guys." Carlos said softly.

"I feel the same way!" Logan exclaimed. "Which is why I don't want to risk losing you guys, too. After tonight, I don't think I can stand being apart from eachother."

"Awww, Logie..." Carlos mused. He wrapped an arm around Logan and the other around me. We hugged again for a minute or two until Logan pulled away.

"Okay, we really need to get to bed. Tell you what, if they don't come back on their own, we'll go looking for them tomorrow, okay?" He proposed.

Carlos and I both agreed. "Deal."

Logan nodded. "Okay, get to bed, both of you. Quickly." He turned to Carlos. "And don't you _dare_ come out of that room again for _anything_ until the morning, got it?"

Carlos nodded. "Yes, sir!" He responded with a salute. He turned and quickly ran into his room, said goodnight, and shut the door.

I turned to Logan. "Night, Logan."

"Goodnight, Sammie." He said with a small smile.

I sighed. "I'm really sorry. If I hadn't wanted to go to the Church none of this would've happened and we'd still be sleeping and completely unaware and James and Kendall would still be here and-"

"Hey, hey, hey." He interrupted, placing a hand on my shoulder and cupping

my cheek with the other. "It's okay, Sam. Like you said, we'll get through this. I'm a genius, remember? I'll find a way to fix this." He soothed.

I gave a small chuckle. "Good luck with that."

Logan smiled and hugged me again. "Goodnight, Sammie." He murmured, rubbing my back slightly. I pulled away and walked into my room.

"Goodnight, Logan."

* * *

><p>For the longest time I sat there awake in my bed. No one came to check on us. I'm guessing whoever was in the Church either lived somewhere else or just didn't want to make sure we didn't see anything or something like that. I was still petrified, but definetly not as much as I was a couple hours ago. I looked at the clock bext to my bed. 4:21. Ugh, I'm never going to get to sleep. Carlos is probably in his room passed out dreaming about Candyland or some childish place like the kid he really is. Logan might be asleep, dreaming about the night's events. Or he could be lying awake like I am and planning out how he can fix the mess I got us all in. James and Kendall are still gone, as far as I know. I can't even imagine what might be happening to them. It's all because of me. James would have never been caught and I wouldn't be worrying myself to death on where he would be. Is he okay? Did they get out in time? Where was he? Will I ever get to see him again?<p>

Then something hit me: Why am I worrying only about James right now? Shouldn't I be like, hating him? That's how we started out right? He was a jerk to me, so I merely reciprocated the feeling. But then something changed. I'm not sure if it was something I did or said or if it wasn't, but he wasn't as snotty and rude as he first was. It was almost like he was actually trying to _like_ me!

He also said I wasn't annoying him for once. That's a step up.

But something was definetly different with me as well. Why was I so scared when James was caught? Why was I more concerned for his well being over mine? Okay, that really should just be a given, but we hate eachother!

...Don't we?

I mean, I was just trying to be friendly to him and he just automatically hates me because my name reminds him of his bitchy ex-girlfriend. So what? Why should I be nice to him when he won't be nice to me? I bet if it was someone else, like Logan or Carlos, caught in the flashlight's gaze, I would've felt the same way. Yeah, that's it. It's the same feeling for all the other guys. It's nothing different.

_You wouldn't have been as scared for them, though._

I hate James.

_Do you?_

Of course I do.

_Then why were you desperate to go after him?_

I groaned as I turned in my bed. Just because we hate eachother doesn't mean we're not friends. I mean, I'm sure he would've done the same for me...I hope.

Out of nowhere I heard footsteps down the hall. Right now I think I'm pretty much done with the uncertainty that comes with the random footsteps. There's just too much fear with the thought as to what it might be. And once again I was beyond terrified. I flipped myself over under my sheets so my back was to the door. My breathing became shallower as the footsteps came closer. They weren't as loud as I would have first guessed. It sounded like they were sneaking around. I stopped breathing all together when the knob on my doir started turning. I shut my eyes tight. The door opened and I waited for any sort of contact. I was ready to be ripped out of my bed and tortured or even killed.

Instead, I heard the most relieving sound in the world, a voice.

"Sammie? You awake?"

I sat up and whirled around to face the door. There stood James leaning against the door looking perfectly fine.

"James!" I squealed, reminding myself of Carlos. I jumped out of bed and ran towards James. When we collided together in a hug it was much more meaningful.

_You didn't have this with Logan or Carlos_.

We held eachother for what seemed like a very long time. I realized how long we stayed like that and I quickly pulled away. "Sorry..." I muttered. He only nodded in response. "Are you okay? What happened? Where were you?" I stood there sputtering out questions like an idiot until James shushed me.

"You still have to be quiet." He told me, there being a soft edge to his voice. "Kendall said someone could still be searching for us. Let's go sit on the bed." He shut the door behind us and led me to the bed.

"Wait, Kendall? He's back too? Is he okay?"

"Yes, Sam. Don't worry, Kendall's fine."

I examined his face again when I thought I saw a scratch. I did. He had a small scratch near his chin. There were two more on his cheek and another on his nose.

"Where'd you get those scratches? James, you told me you were okay!"

"I never said I was okay!" James protested. "But I am..."

"So where'd those scratches come from? What happened? Where'd you go?"

James sighed, and I feared that he might be getting annoyed with me...again.

"Kendall and I escaped into the woods at the bottom of the hill. We maybe ran through half of it before we were sure he hadn't followed us. So my face may have taken a few blows from a couple branches or something. Maybe a couple thorn bushes contributed too..."

"Who was it? In the church, I mean."

James shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't get a good look at him."

"Oh...Well, what about Logan or Carlos? Did you see them yet?"

James nodded. "They're both asleep."

I scoffed. "Lucky..."

James chuckled. "Can you not get to sleep?"

I shook my head and watched the door. "Nope. I'm so shaken up and scared and nervous and-"

"Hey," He whispered. He lighty grasped my chin and turned it towards him. For about the tenth time that night my heart started to beat rapidly.

But I wasn't scared this time.

At least, not in the same way.

"We're safe here, for now. We're not going to let anything happen to you. And I know you'll do the same for us. Nothing can hurt us up here."

I stared into his eyes for a moment. They held the same fear I felt, but there was also reassurance, comfort...and...that's not what I think it is...is it?

_We're supposed to hate eachother_.

His gaze continued to hold me a little while longer. Even when I started to feel something like a magnetic pull towards him, I didn't look away. Even when we were subconciously leaning closer and closer to eachother, I didn't break his gaze.

But he did.

He suddenly shot up off the bed. The next hing I knew he was by the door again. He cleared his throat before speaking.

"Goodnight, Sam."

I swallowed the large lump in my throat. "Goodnight...James."

Quickly, he opened the door and shut it almost silently.

Oh my God, what just happened?

I steadied my breathing in an attempt to calm my heart. On my brain I had the last few moments on replay. What started it, what happened prior to the event, and why it happened.

...Why _did_ it happen?

I crawled back under the covers of my bed, and for tw next couple hours I was terrified for a whole different reason.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Woah, conflict goin' on there, huh? Well, I was really excited to write this chapter. Consider this like a miracle or something because it came wayyyy earlier than I expected. You have to thank my friends for that though, they're the ones who always push me when I don't want to do something. (There ya go, I mentioned you. Don't get cocky.) Now, it could be a long while before the next one is up, mainly because I have NO idea what I'm gonna do. But usually if I wing it, they turn out to be one of my favorites. So we'll see how that goes! Until then, I wish everyone a great summer an thank you so much for reading, don't forget to review!<strong>_


	8. Chapter 8

_**Kay so it's halfway through summer and just NOW I'm updating :/ I'm really sorry, guys! Let's just hope I don't drag this on and on so much that no one is even interested anymore. Sorry for the long wait...again :P Anyway this chapter is going to be in Logan's POV. Oh, and the last part is in 3rd person, just so there's no confusion.**_

_**Thank you to all the people who reviewed/favorited/alerted/whatever. It really means a lot.**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own BTR**_

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><p><strong>Logan's POV<strong>

Carlos sat next to Sammie on the couch opposite of James and I. Kendall sat in the chair next to them. No one said anything. We had noticed a car parked outside the house and waited for someone to walk inside. The air was composed of a comfortable anticipation as each of us stared at the door. But, something was definetly different with Sam, and James too. I don't know what happened when they came back but I'm assuming it didn't end blandly. I shrugged it off for the moment and continued to stare at the door. We didn't know what to do. No one came in and told us what to do, what they wanted from us. We just waited. Waited for whoever was in the Church last night to come in here and do whatever they felt was the punishment for discovering Kathy in there. Obviously he knew about it beforehand. The question is why he didn't do anything about it. In reality the whole event was pretty confusing, but already I thought I was putting the pieces together.

First of all, whoever wrote Kathy's suicide note did a pretty poor job of acting like they actually were Kathy. I know for a fact that it was not Kathy who wrote it. Her handwriting is not that...unusual. The O's had a line through them. I'm not sure why, exactly. It's probably a way to decipher them from zeroes, but I have never known anyone to do that. The notes she left us never had O's like that. They were all normal. Well, depending on what you call normal. Right now it's a little hard to remember what I considered to be "normal".

Second of all, whoever was in the Church last night obviously had something to do with Kathy's death. I could tell because he let us go. I knew that if I were in that position, I would stop anyone in sight to question them unless I had something to do with whatever it was I was involved in. In that case...

In that case I would still catch anyone and everyone to make sure they wouldn't say anything. I wouldn't let anyone get away.

Unless I knew where they were going. And if that place they were going was also where they were going to stay...

How would they know where we were going? How would they know where we would stay? The only other person (and/or people) besides Kathy that would know that is...

Ron.

I mentally scoffed. Figures. I'm actually surprised it took him this long.

Wait a minute, _peop__le._ I'm not even following my own train of thought, here!

A government agent could possibly have done it. I knew they didn't know much about what really went on in this large house, but I knew they didn't really take a liking to Kathy. I was never aware of the reason, but I noticed that the agents became stiffer and almost annoyed around her. Then again they never really liked Ron, either. But then again, no one really does.

They knew something was going on right under their noses here, they just didn't know what.

"Loges," Someone's voice broke me out of my trance. James stared at me with an eyebrow raised.

"Hm?"

"You thinkin' about something?" He asked.

"How did you know?"

James let out a small chuckle. "Well first," he began, "you were zoned out. Second, your eyebrows were creased. I know you do that when you're thinking." He smirked as I looked away, slightly irritated at how well we've come to mnkwn eachother in just a few months. "What were you thinking about?" James asked next. I took a deep breath and looked back at James.

"I thinks I have some ideas on who killed Kathy." I whispered. James tilted his head slighty in confusion as he made a face to match it.

The door opened quickly as Ron stepped inside. He crossed the room to its halfway point and stopped. He turned to glare at us, obviously upset about something. Or nothing, who knows.

"Well?" He demanded.

The five of us exchanged glances with eachother, each of us hoping another person knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Well what?" Kendall asked at last.

Ron sighed a long, annoyed sigh. "Why aren't you working down at the barn?"

Many "Oh!"s were spoken. Some of us attempted to get up but an awkward tension fell upon the room. We retreated to just sitting there and staring at Ron.

Sam attempted to explain. "We uh, w-we didn't know if we should have-"

Ron raised his hand to cut her off. "Save it. Just go."

We all scrambled to get out of our seats and up the stairs to get changed. When we came back down we all muttered our apologies to Ron as we each passed by him. But when we were about to leave he stopped us.

"Kendall. Stay." Was all he said. Kendall released a small breath he hadn't realized he was holding, and stepped away from us. The rest of us hurried out the door. Not one word was spoken on the long walk there.

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><p>Kendall came back after about fifteen minutes. He would have a black eye and his lip was broken, Kendall wiping off blood every few minutes. He had a small limp when he walked as well.<p>

"You okay, man?" James asked him as he moved a barrel of hay.

Kendall shrugged. "Yeah I guess. After he busted my lip he stopped." He reached up to tap his lip. He pulled his hand back. When he found blood on It he wiped his lip with his sleeve again.

"Don't do the Kendall," I told him, "you're going to get it infected with all the stuff that's on your arm."

He scoffed. "It's fine, Logan. It's not like I'm gonna get killed from it."

"Don't even joke about that!" Sammie snapped. "I'd rather not have anyone else die here, okay?"

Kendall sighed and looked away. "Sorry."

"When we get back you should clean your lip, Kendall." I advised. Kendall chuckled a bit and nodded his head. "Yes, Mom."

"Wait, Logan," James spoke up. I turned to him and raised my eyebrows in response.

"What did you mean when you said that you thought you knew who killed Kathy?"

Everyone else's heads turned toward me.

"Someone _killed _Kathy?" Carlos gasped.

"There's no way, Carlos! She left a suicide note!" Sam looked to me to back her up. When I looked away embarrassingly she cocked her head to the side in confusion and worry. "Logan?"

"Well, _someone_ definetly left a suicide note...but it wasn't Kathy." I muttered, playing with the fingers of my glove.

"What do you mean, 'it wasn't Kathy'?" Sam asked. Her tone obviously stated she didn't believe me.

"I mean _it wasn't Kathy._" I retorted with the same amount of venom. She glared at me. "It wasn't her handwriting. Someone else wrote it for her."

Carlos gasped again. "So someone _did _kill her!"

James shook his head. "Not necessarily, Carlos. Someone easily could have written that for her. Maybe she didn't want to write it herself... That's a possibility, right, Logan?"

I shrugged. "I guess. I mean, you're right, it could be! But why would someone do that? I would hope that whoever did it at least tried to talk her out of it. I don't know, James, that just doesn't make sense to me."

"Whose handwriting was it?" Kendall asked. I shrugged again.

"Don't know. It just wasn't Kathy's." I answered plainly.

"So someone _did _kill her!" Carlos exclaimed again.

"Maybe!" Kendall answered with the same amount of enthusiasm.

"Maybe not, guys," Sam interrupted, "What if she just wants us to think someone killed her? She probably just wanted to frame someone so she faked the handwriting to look like someone else's."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at her. "Why would someone do that?" James criticized. "They wouldn't just give up their life just to frame someone. That's just stupid!"

Sam's eyebrows knitted together in anger. Then she shrugged it off and just rolled her eyes and shook he head, irritated.

"He has a point, Sam." Kendall agreed. "That seems a but much just to get back at someone."

"And even if that was why she killed herself," I continued, "What would be the reason?"

Sam just shook her head again. Our reasoning obviously not helping her mood. She hopped down from the barrel of hay she stood on and walked near Carlos. When she reached him she grabbed his hand.

"Come on, Carlos." She grumbled.

"Where are we going?"

"To the other side of the barn."

"But why me?"

"Because you're the only one who's not annoying me." She answered with a glare shot back at one of us. I followed her line of sight and it lead to...James? He glared back at the pair that almost seemed to contain a hint of jealousy.

Okay, I need to find out what's going on.

"What's that look for?" I interrogated. His eyes shifted towards me and the glare faded...slightly.

"What look?" He snapped.

"...The one you just gave Carlos and Sam?"

His face relaxed, but his eyebrows were still creased. He turned around so that his back faced me. "That wasn't a look. That was...a facial expression..."

I shook my head out of confusion. "Okay, what is going on between you two?"

"Between who?" He mumbled.

"You and Sam!"

"Wow, okay! Ew!"

"...That was a pretty good impression of her, James." I praised, though it was rather random in the first place.

James turned around, confused. "That wasn't me."

"Guys, come here!" We heard Carlos call. James and I hopped off our hay piles and walked with Kendall to where Carlos and Sam were. They were in the corner of the barn looking at something.

"What is it?" Kendall asked.

"Um..." Sam started to say. "Well...uh..."

"Do people often change in barns?" Carlos curiously asked.

"Uh, no?" I replied, raising an eyebrow. "Why would you ask something like that?"

"Uh, well... Something rather awkward came up." Sam mumbled.

Kendall hopped up and walked over to Sam and Carlos. He pushed past them a little bit to see what they were staring at in the corner. "HA!" was all he said.

"What, what is it?" James asked frantically as he jumped up onto the hay. I followed him to the others. We looked over teir shoulders and found something rather awkward indeed.

A pair of women's underwear.

"Oh, well then... Okay, what are those doing here?"

"Haha, that's awesome." James snickered, which caused Sammie to elbow him in the gut.

"Whose are they?" Kendall wondered aloud for all of us. Four heads began to turn towards the (recently) one girl in the entire property. She caught our stares and shot us back a look that basically said "are you stupid?".

"Really?"

"You are the only girl here..." Carlos said sheepishly.

"Those aren't mine! Who would even think to undress here?"

Kendall chuckled to himself. "Sammie's gettin' it on with someone!" he cracked to Carlos. He chuckled lightly, but then asked, "Who would it be with?"

An awkward silence fell over the five of us. Sam blushed in embarrassment. "I'm not 'getting it on' with anyone." She growled defensively.

"Thanks for even bringing the subject up, Kendall." I scolded as I rolled my eyes.

"So what do we do with it?" Carlos asked.

"Hmm," James hummed, "We could take it..." Sam elbowed him in the stomach again. "What?" He demanded, practically out of breath.

"Wait a sec, Sam," Kendall stopped her before she could do it again. "It's not a terrible idea."

"What?" She asked astonishly.

James rose an eyebrow. "It isn't?"

"Guys, think about it! If we leave this here Ron is going to come around and find this. This might just be me but I don't think he'll be too happy about it!"

I looked to the others. Kendall's reasoning got me thinking...more than usual. What if he had found it, but for some reason he got mad because _**we **_found it?

"We should take it." I declared. Kendall smiled at me and looked expectantly at Carlos and Sammie.

Sam sighed, "Fine," she gave in, "I'm not keeping it, though. That's gross!"

"I'll keep it." James volunteered. Sam moved to elbow him yet again but James caught her arm. He raised her wrist infront of her face. "HaHA!" He boasted, flashing a flirty smile at her.

...Something's wrong with him.

He quickly snapped out of it and dropped her arm. He cleared his throat as he searched for another place to look at. "So, uh, who's gonna take it?"

"I'm not touching it." Sam said flatly.

My eyebrows furrowed. "You're wearing gloves..."

Sam looked down at her hands. She scowled and crossed her arms over her chest. "Don't care."

I heard James and Carlos give a chuckle as I rolled my eyes. I slipped through inbetween Sam and Carlos and went to grab the piece of clothing but retracted quickly.

"We'll get it later."

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><p>The house was colder than usual, so we basically stuffed the fireplace with wood. Kendall and I were in the bathroom trying to take care of Kendall's lip. Trying as in everytime I would touch it he'd flinch and try to get away from me. Kendall wasn't doing it right himself so of course I had to do it. Eventually it would only be every other time I'd touch his lip he'd flinch.<p>

"So did you grab it?" He asked me.

I stopped dabbing the cut and sat straighter. "What's 'it'?"

"The underwear."

I made a face at that. Personally I'd rather not talk about stuff like that, especially if it belongs to a girl. "Yeah, I grabbed it." I mumbled, looking away.

"Whose is it?"

I looked back at him. "I don't know!" I snapped, "I'd rather not look at it, period!"

"You mean there isn't like a name on it or something?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Really, Kendall? A name on the underwear?"

"Well, don't a lot of people have their name sewn onto their underwear?" He questioned defensively. I rolled my eyes in response. "No? Alright, chalk me up as a terrible detective."

I chuckled, "No, that's clever thinking. It's just that no one does that anymore...unless they have strange mothers... But I highly doubt girls do that." I took the damp towel in my hand and adjusted it on my hand. I lightly dabbed Kendall's wound with it, and he hissed through his teeth at the pain. "Sorry, and because there _is_ no name on it, we don't know who it belongs to. That is very good thinking, Kendall. If there was a name on them, you would've solved the case."

He beamed. "Really?"

"...No, there are still many parts to it that need explanations."

His joy was killed, giving a small 'aww' to prove it. I chuckled lightly at his demeanor, and readjusted the towel again. James walked in soon after, and leaned his back against the frame of the door.

"Hey, guys." He greeted, ours were returned and he gave a small smile. "Having fun?"

Kendall huffed, "No...OW!" He shouted and jumped out of the chair he was sitting in.

I threw my towel on the counter of the sink. "Well, dammit, Kendall! I told you it would hurt and you'd have to face the pain if I was going to do it for you!"

Kendall lightly bit his lip, grimacing at the taste of blood that still remained. "I'm sorry, Logie," he sighed, I slighty rolled my eyes at the nickname. He sat back down in the chair facing my own. "But it stings!"

I sighed, too, slightly irritated from his whining and the redundant pain inflicted actions. "I know, buddy, I know. That's why I'm trying to help you so it _won't_ hurt anymore."

"Not to interrupt the tender moment, here," James butt in, "but did you find out anything else on who might have killed Kathy?"

I shook my head. "No, I haven't. But I might find out something about you today," I smirked knowingly.

James eyed me suspiciously. "What do you mean?"

"What's going on between you and Sammie?" I asked cautiously. His eyes widened to the point of being saucers, and started to get very jittery.

"It was nothing! We both needed comfort and I don't know about her but really she was the only way out for me-"

"What did you DO?" Kendall accused, cutting off James from his rant.

"Nothing!" James had his hands raised in front of him defensively. "I promise we didn't do anything! Well, we almost did-"

"Did what?" I asked.

James looked away, debating between which was more interesting to him: The ceiling or the floor. "Um...we, uh...we almost kissed last night..." He admitted awkwardly, twisting his foot by his heel on the floor.

"You WHAT?"

"Almost what, Kendall. Almost what." I corrected, turning back to James, I asked, "What happened?"

James pushed himself off of the wall and turned to face us. He shrugged, "Nothing, really. I went to check on her-"

"Why were you checking on her?" Kendall interrupted, a little bit of vemon thrown in there.

"To see if she was okay!" James answered defensively, "She and Carlos were the only ones awake! You two were asleep!"

"So?"

"Kendall, stop! What's your problem?" I chided. He pursed his lips and huffed. I turned back to James, "Anyway..."

He nodded and continued, "I went to see if she was okay and when I opened the door and she hugged me." His lips turned into a small smile at the thought.

"And you hugged her back?" I asked.

"Well...yeah..."

"Why?" Kendall demanded.

"Kendall, seriously? Leave him alone for a second!"

"We hugged for...a while, actually. Then I think she remembered she hated me and let go. Um, we talked while we sat on her bed and...we...almost kissed." James shrugged, his expression a mix of confusion and hopelessness.

"Why almost?" I asked curiously.

"I...got up. We said goodnight...and I left."

"Why'd you let it get that far?" Kendall demanded again. I opened my mouth to say someyhing but James beat me to it.

"What do you mean, 'why'd I let it get that far'? I didn't mean for it to happen! I didn't realize it _was_ happening until I was getting up, when I remembered I was supposed to hate her!" James yelled back, his demeanor completely changed when he looked at me. "Aren't I?" he asked me, as if I knew the answer.

"_Do _you hate her, James?" I asked gently.

"You should." Kendall grumbled, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Why should he?" I demanded.

"Because she's arrogant, sarcastic, and did you see how defensive she got when we disagreed with her?"

James gave a pout. "Then she walked off with _Carlos__.__"_ He said Carlos' name like it disgusted him.

"Yeah..." Kendall agreed.

I looked between the two, both were pouting. They were pouting for the same reason, at that. I stood up. "Okay, wait a second!" I pointed at James, "I understand why you're pouting...sort of." I turned to Kendall and pointed at him. "But you? You can't be pouting for the same reason as him, right?" I only noticed what James was doing around Sam because of the tension there was between them this morning. I never guessed Kendall was feeling the same thing James was...almost.

"He better not be pouting for the same reason as me." He growled.

"Woah, wait a minute!" James stopped us. "I don't even know if I'm pouting for the reason I think I'm pouting!"

I sighed, exasperated. "James, admit it. You like Sam."

Kendall stood up, giving James a hard glare. "No, he doesn't."

James frowned, glaring back at Kendall with the same intensity.

...Uh-oh...

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><p>Sam looked around the living room. "Where'd James go?" She asked and she turned to Carlos, who shrugged.<p>

"Did he leave just now?"

Another shrug. "I have no idea."

Ever since Sam and Carlos got home, they had been talking nonstop. It was mostly about useless things, school, family, everyday things. James had been sitting there with him almost as the third wheel. He tried to participate in the conversation but when he could he only would say about three or four words before Carlos started talking again. James became fed up with it after a while, that burning anger that came with jealousy getting to be too much for James to handle, so he left, hopefully to find peace within himself with the help of Logan. After what Mercedes did, he vowed to never trust girls. Now, he was kicking himself for even _looking_ at Sam in a way that was anything other than hate.

"Speaking of James," Carlos started, and grinned at Sam.

"What?"

"Why were you two looking so awkward around eachother this morning?"

It took a second for Sam to realize what exactly Carlos was talking about. "Oh!" She exclaimed, "That was nothing. Nothing happened."

Carlos stared at her, knowing.

"What?"

"If it was nothing you two would still be hating eachother." He pointed out, still grinning.

"...We do hate eachother!"

Carlos chuckled, not believing a word she was saying.

"Why are you being such a girl about this?" Sam pressed.

"I am not being a girl!" He denied. Sam started to laugh. "I'm not!"

"Then why are you pressuring me to tell you about my relationship with James?"

"HA!" Carlos smiled, pointing a finger at her. "So you are in a relationship with him!"

Sam rolled her eyes. "That's not what I meant!"

"But you said it!"

"I didn't mean I was actually in a relationship with him. I was only talking about the...connection-"

"So you have a connection with him!" Carlos jumped, his smile growing bigger.

"No! Carlos, there is _nothing_ between us, okay? If you're so hooked on this, why don't you just go ask James about it?"

Carlos' eyebrows rose as he made a small 'ooh!' sound. He jumped off the couch yelling James' name, trying to find the tallest boy. Sam chuckled and she rolled her eyes. But now once again her thoughts were on James. What James was probably thinking right now, wondering if he was thinking of her, too.

She groaned. She stood up and dragged her feet up the stairs looking forward to the sleep that would end this day.


End file.
